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Chapter Text

Jestro rubbed the memory of the morning from his eyes. Apology cards were a flop in Grindstead, and he could safely cross the marching band off the list of potential good-guy jobs. That one was a bit of a disappointment; it had been actually fun to try out the tuba. Settling in a calmly lonely playground for lunch break, he plucked elastic-cloth balls from his pocket. Tossing them up in quick succession, he was met with a perfect arch in the sky; glowing like a rainbow in the late morning sun. He had to fumble a few and drop a few, but the rhythm was generous. Smiling at the sky, he juggled them higher.

“I thought that was you!”

Jestro caught what was left in the air and waved back at Clay. He scooted over to free up the bench.

“Please, continue,” the knight said as he sat down. He cracked open an orb filled with lettuce that smelled like old seaweed. “It looked really good.”

“Thanks,” Jestro sighed, picking up the balls he’d dropped. “I’m really out of practice.”

Clay shrugged. “That just proves it was a unique performance.”

Jestro chuckled at that, thinking of the ‘unique performance’ which kicked him hard enough to shake the darkness off his tail.

He had yet to see the knight’s headquarters after his re-transformation, though it was only to be expected. Meanwhile, Clay tracked him down during free lunch days. They were thankfully many since Monstrox had been defeated. An apple in his mouth, Jestro tried again at juggling. Even though it was Clay, an audience always made the balls misbehave. One fell a little too far out of his range and the rest scattered at once as he tried to snatch it. Clay helped pick them up and nodded to try again, then kindly buried his attention in the salad.

Jestro set the apple down minus the one bite and lined up the colors again. Again they flew up into the arch. Steadily faster, steadily higher.

From the corner of his eye, Jestro caught the blue knight picking up the apple. He lightly tossed it his way. The jester jumped, instinctively reversing the flow of the spheres. The peachy red swirled into the colors. They spun once, twice, then lined up between his hands.

The knight pumped his fist in celebration.

Jestro just studied the set with a smile forming from the inside. He took the apple again. “How are the rest of the knights?” he asked.

“Aaron’s breaking every record in the kingdom, Axl’s back on The Singing Chef, Lance is working out the paperwork to name his pet pig a Richmond…”

“Sounds 'bout right,” Jestro chuckled.

“Macy’s been looking after the Fortex. Both of us have been trying to convince the people they need to be able to defend themselves against monsters.”

Jestro nodded approvingly, spitting out an apple seed.

“I think it’s wearing on her,” Clay sighed like it broke his heart a little. “No one listens about possible dangers.”

“Do you really think monsters could come back?” Briefly, he thought of the almost-definitely mirage in the clouds the day after Monstrox was shattered.

“I should certainly hope not,” Clay replied. “But I hope to be prepared if anything tries. I’ve been working on teaching the Knight’s Code to the students,” he said, brightening at the mention of two of his favorite things. “‘All sworn duties shall be executed in a manner consistent with the Ancient Accords of Virtue and Chivalry,” he recited. “Including it’s most profound pillars of Honor, Respect, Loyalty, Courage-”

“Compassion, Diligence, and Justice,” Jestro finished in unison. “They’ll have it in no time, I’m sure,” he remarked dryly. “Well, if anything does come,” he shrugged, “you’d be able to take care of it. After all,” he joked experimentally, “who could possibly be a worse villain than I was?”

Clay laughed. “They’d be hard-pressed to find one as important to Knighton or to me.”

Jestro chuckled as well. “Tell Macy not to worry too much about the people,” he added. “You figure this stuff out when it’s important, you know?”

Chapter Text

Slam.

Slam.

Slam!

Jestro almost threw the rest of his apology cards in the air after three villages worth of doors were slammed in his face. Granted, that was three more villages than he would’ve managed before, but it still hurt.

Shuffling his feet, he forced himself to take a walk between the forest and the city. It wasn’t a good day to be in a bad mood. The sun seemed to smile while puffy clouds skipped across the sky. One especially close cloud happened to come Jestro’s way. After trying his hand with weather reporting, he hadn’t heard of patterns like it. And what were the odds it would settle right over him?

The tips of Jestro’s hat dropped as the cloud chose its moment to plop a quick shower of rain on an otherwise bright and beautiful day. He sighed. Maybe the streak of bad luck was the universe balancing things out after his early pardon. He took a step to the side, and the cloud drifted with him. He hopped a step up wind and the cloud followed. He ducked under a tree and it came with him!

“Oh, come on!” Jestro exclaimed, his bells jingling in hurt. “What sort of-” His voice gave out. It wasn’t a leftover nightmare this time.

Meanwhile, Clay, after much insisting from his friends, was on a leisurely run around the northern area of the kingdom. He didn’t expect to find trouble, but carried his sword anyway. He wanted to stay used to the weight, he’d explained to Macy. She only shook her head.

The sky was a bright, peaceful shade of blue. Clay was just starting to slow down to a hearty jog so he could admire it, when he stopped. Jestro was over the next hill. If Clay’s eyes were honest, Jestro seemed to be talking to a cloud. Clay smiled and shook his head fondly. He started to pick up his speed again to turn back home when the corner of his eye caught a sharp glint of fear.

“So that’s a no, then? Well, this is gonna hurt me more than it’s gonna hurt you,” a horribly familiar voice sighed. “Actually, know what? Nevermind, it’s gonna hurt you more.”

A set of yellow eyes, slit like a snake’s, stared down with a crooked grin, neither of which were softened by the cloudy, black form. Jestro nearly stumbled over a root when he shrank back. Apology cards fumbled from his bag. His progress flashed before him, all his good thoughts and memories clinging to one another, waiting to be snatched away.

The Cloud of Monstrox sparked with unnatural electricity.

“JESTRO!” Clay shouted. He tackled his friend, tearing him out of the way as a streak of light scorched the air.

Clay trained to be faster than any enemy, even a supernatural one like the returned Monstrox. For a moment, it looked like both of them would have the time to turn and strike back with whatever could injure a cloud. The adrenaline from the final sprint was still rushing through Clay, and he didn’t immediately register the searing heat up his foot. For a short second, he was glad not to be wearing armor to send the jolt throughout his whole body. It only lasted a second.

“Well, what d’ya know,” Monstrox pondered aloud.

“Clay…?” Jestro asked, standing up shakily. “You- you good?”

Clay pushed up to his hands and knees. He grasped his ankle, and black cords like snakes or like streaks of darkness spilled over his fingers and up his leg. “No…” he gasped out, breathless with fear. “I’m-” He grit his teeth, then grasped the hilt of his sword. “Terrible.”

Jestro didn’t want to run away. He couldn’t run away. Clay had saved him too many times already. But the blue knight was pulling out his sword. He turned it swiftly in his hand, holding the blade in the wrong direction. Jestro watched in horror as black tar and a cold, blue light spread up his body. As a grin resembling the cloud’s twisted Clay’s mouth upward, his eyes swiveled in their sockets. They landed and locked on Jestro, rooted in place. Hard enough to force him backward, Clay shoved the handle of his prized sword onto Jestro’s chest.

“Wh-what am I supposed to do with this? I don’t know how to use these things!” the jester exclaimed, grabbing the hilt in both hands.

Monstrox caught on faster than Jestro, as Clay buckled back, a look of terror and confusion fighting to come through his eyes. The cloud laughed and struck his lighting down again. Jestro leapt out of the way this time. Clay’s eyes rose, no longer brown, but a piercing yellow. He took a breath that came from iron, with rage and ambition that didn’t belong there. “Go,” the knight ordered.

So Jestro ran, Monstrox igniting the grass around his feet. He ran into the closest village, throwing off the bag’s weight. Papers flew behind him and turned to ash as they caught the electricity. He screamed, screamed for help, not caring one second who slammed a door on him. Monstrox was back. Knighton didn’t have to suffer Jestro’s villainy again, but it might have just been given something far worse.

Chapter Text

Axl looked up from brunch when he heard a banging against the Fortrex door like someone was under attack. He quickly stood to see what was the matter. Relief followed promptly when he only saw it was only Jestro, gasping for breath over his knees. Clay’s sword was limp at his side, but no monsters, or worse, brunch-stealing critters.

Jestro gasped something that sounded like, “Axl!” before landing a hand over the doorway, catching his breath while making sure the entrance wouldn't close.

“What’s the matter?” Axl asked worriedly. “Dragons? Earthquakes? Protests against the weather report?”

Jestro shook his head quickly, straightening out his back as fast as Aaron shoves a dislocated bone back into place. “Monstrox! Clay! Do something!” he exclaimed, his eye twitching once.

Axl blinked, then invited him in to explain.

Jestro shook his head, trying to say there was no time. Once Robin and Aaron walked in for the noise, he gradually realized this was his first direct appearance in weeks. Ava swiveled around neutrally, followed by Merlok flickering on.

“Jestro, my boy!” the wizard greeted brightly before puzzlement stroked over his beard. “Didn’t the queen say not to run through town in a panic unless there was an emergency?”

Jestro nodded, then reminded himself to string more than one word together. “It’s an emergency,” he spat out. “Monstrox- he survived the blast, he left some magic in this cloud somehow.” He blinked against the quickly brightened spotlight. “I ran into him- I mean he ran into me! Had this lightning power- Clay pushed me out of the way a-and…”

Alarm ran among the knights, save for Merlok, whose resting baffled face sank soberly.

“This blue and yellow light was crawling all over him like rats- a-and his face- it just-”

At that, the red knight emerged from the hall. “What?” Macy asked sharply. “What happened to Clay?”

Jestro explained again, careful to use his breath and not to skip anything important. “He… he tried to save me, so I wouldn't be under Monstrox’s control again,” he said quietly. “But now…” He tugged down the brim of his hat, feeling tears pull at his eyes.

“It’s not your fault,” Axl started to say before the pink drained from Macy’s face.

“GAH! You clumsy- knee-knocking buffoon!” she exclaimed, the pale in her face turning to red. She snatched up her helmet and smacked the visor down with a clang. Jestro recoiled, the princess still every inch the fearless knight of the battlefield. “Where is he now?”

Jestro counted pointlessly on his fingers. He hadn’t exactly been making a map when he wandered off. “On the outskirts of town,” he managed.

“Alright,” Macy said, throwing her mace into its holster. “Suit up, guys.”

“She’s right, we haven’t any time to waste!” Merlok said, bringing the engine to life.

Without meaning to open his mouth, Jestro mumbled, “We?”

“Of course, ‘We’!” Aaron exclaimed, looking at him incredulously before running off for his shield. “Clay’s your buddy as much as ours!”

A very distant, but very bright flicker of something like fearlessness beat butterfly wings in Jesto’s chest. “No- I know,” he stammered feebly. “I just- didn’t think you guys would want my help.”

There was a spilt second hitch in the mobilization. Suddenly, Ava sat up at her usual perch. An urgent message from Lance, his holovision program live from the new Lavalands Amusement Park, lit up.

“No one tell my dad, but we had a bit of an interruption!” He smacked a flicker of gray back with his lance, the mic catching screams. “I didn’t hire these guys!” The knight looked around in a flicker of the fighting. “Oh, good news! Clay’s here."

“LANCE!” Everyone on board shrieked. The warning was lost in the fighting and Lance’s cry of, “NEX-O KNIGHT!”

“Oh, mustache of Merlin!” Merlok muttered anxiously, dancing between the download and the Fortrex controls.

“We’ll cover him in the mechs,” Aaron assured quickly.

“Uh-” Jestro stammered.

“Come on!” Macy exclaimed, so he hopped aboard a random mech with a heavy sword.

Lance wiped the sweat daintily from his bangs. The monsters froze up instead of poofing when a charged weapon hit them, but a victory was a victory. He turned to check the camera lens when, in its reflection, a bolt of lighting (Was there supposed to be a storm?) suddenly landed on a gargoyle.

“Oh, that just doesn't seem fair,” Lance groaned as the whole stone crowd began to blink and hiss again.

“Clay!” Lance called out to him as he drew near. Weird. He knew Clay had passed dodging class with high marks, but were the monsters even trying to hit him? “You look terrible,” he remarked once he got a good glance. “You know I’ve said to use cream at night to prevent this kind of rash.”

“I need to get inside the castle. Cover me!” Clay ordered before Lance could register the dark blue shadows on his eyes or the scorch on his pant leg.

“Actually, I was thinking you could help-” But Clay had already run off.

“Lance!” Macy exclaimed. Her mech slammed into some round stone creatures. She leaped out before she was barely parked. “Where’s Clay?”

“He went- ow! Inside,” Lance reported, his shining armor dented by a stone goblin's headbutt.

She looked back for a moment: Even after the renovations, Monstrox’s previous arena was all too recognizable. “Oh no,” she murmured before the battle ordered her full attention.

Every swing was costly. The stone monsters sent shockwaves through Macy’s arm the faster she swung, and they weren't inclined to flinch. “Merlok!” She called out. “Nex-o knight!” She lifted her shield to the sky but was rewarded with a rocky hit to her ribs.

Through the headset in her helmet, Ava audibly cringed. “Sorry, Macy. Reception is fuzzy with the storm and all the news cameras. Lance is the only one with a download for now.”

“Tell me next time,” she groaned in pain, scarcely managing to chip the stone soldier in retaliation.

“Me? But I’m the one who just got his nails manicured!” Lance complained. Macy reminded herself that socking him would really distract from the battle. She jumped as a shadow fell over her head.

“Dad?” She knew her father had been enraptured when he got his own battle mech suit (Who wouldn’t?) but it didn’t come as any less of a shock.

“Hi, sweetie! I mean, Macy!” the king laughed. “Haha! Take that! And that!” he exclaimed, kicking monsters every which way.

“Careful, sweetheart!” The queen called as a gargoyle nearly hit Mr. Richmond. She then took a hammer from a servant and seized into the fray herself.

Their help kept Lance from being smashed, but didn’t exactly turn the tides against the small army.

“What is Clay doing?” Lance exclaimed in frustration as he hit a stone like a baseball.

Macy just grimaced, another shockwave clambering up her arm.

Maybe these guys can convince the townsfolk to listen to us, she thought begrudgingly. The consolation didn’t last long. Her new mace grew battered. But why did it have to be now?

…

It was cooler than the last time in the arena. The towering walls, reinforced for the amusement park, made a slight hush to the chaos outside. The knight’s silence etched deeper as he stepped toward the stone table; the chains that had trapped both him and Jestro were untouched.

“Well? I don’t have hands,” Monstrox reminded.

His hesitation faded quickly. The rattle of the metal echoed shortly through the cave as he brushed them aside and began to unpiece the rubble.

…

Jestro watched helplessly from Aaron’s mech, growing in desperation between knowing that he would get squashed after two seconds in battle and knowing the knights would within a few minutes. Hurriedly, he searched through the controls for a clue. The red button looked promising.

He ducked sharply as the hatch popped open and a fireball exploded out. It swallowed what looked like a recreation of the Scurriers. With a surprised rasp, the monster went flying for a moment, nearly barreling into Macy. She jumped, swung to knock the creature on its back, then threw Jestro a look that said not to touch anything.

Jestro shut the hatch, recognizing that button at least. Eventually, the screeching of the monsters died down enough for the grunts and exclamations of the knights to surface.

Finally, he carefully peeked open the sunroof. Without the cloud watching, the statues returned to frozen stone. Lance fell dramatically on his back, his father extending impressed applause for the show. Jestro had only taken a sigh of relief when a gargoyle leaped in front of the mech, wings stretched out like claws. Jestro shrieked and smacked it with the broad side of Clay’s sword. Surprisingly, it faltered down. More surprisingly, his instinct took over to lurch the mech forward and pinned it there.

“I never thought I'd miss fighting Lavaria and Magmar’s crew,” Macy groaned, rubbing her ribs.

“Said it,” Aaron remarked, dizzily bringing his hoverboard down.

Lance was eventually convinced back to his feet when the doors of the arena swung open.

For a moment, everything was as still as the statues. Clay’s lightning-streaked hand, free from the sword, held a long, golden staff that looked like a scythe on one end with a hexagonal frame on the other. The cloud hovered behind him. Jestro stared at Clay, eyes wide with apology. Monstrox’s magic visibly pierced through his skin. His eyes were so cold.

“Clay…” Macy murmured, her hand falling away from the bruise.

“Is- is that Monstrox?” Lance asked finally.

“Not a lot of clouds grow eyes, dude,” said Aaron warily.

The silence was brief. “We have what we came for,” Clay said over his shoulder.

Monstrox laughed, sending shudders through all but one of the knights. Scattered pebbles rumbled across the ground. A web of lightning leaped from the necromancer’s command. Like they’d never stopped, the statues roared back to life and broke through the weary fighters like they were toy soldiers. They clustered together and hopped aboard a red, rolling fortress. Jestro cringed. Monstrox blazed forward and Clay followed.

“Are… we giving chase?” Lance asked, glancing uncertainly between his friends.

Axl lifted his helmet to wipe his nose, which sniffled. Aaron pinched the back of his neck, glancing between Jestro and the others.

“Did I miss something?” Lance asked more urgently. “What’s Clay doing?”

“He’s…” Macy started. She clasped her hands to her mouth, a mixture of fear and anger spinning in her eyes which would make men braver than Lance recoil.

“What? Clay’s what?” he urged.

“He’s gone to the dark side, man,” Aaron explained sadly.

Lance stopped and pulled off his helmet, briefly forgetting the ruined state of his program. “He… what?”

Macy closed her eyes tightly, then opened them again. “He’s gone,” she said quietly. “He took Jestro’s place, so… we’ll be fighting him with Monstrox.” She set her mace back in its holster, then walked evenly back to her mech. Lance and the others glanced back at Jestro, half-forgotten in the chaos.

He stood up in the mech. “No,” Jestro interrupted. Macy jumped into her car but didn't close the door. “Clay’s not gone,” he insisted and lifted up the sword with a bit of effort. “He gave this to me. Would he do that if he wasn’t going to get it back? He’s depending on me to kick Monstrox’s cloudy butt again!” he said in almost a shout, clutching the handle tightly.

“You mean to on us to kick his cloudy butt again,” Ava added from the radio.

Lance put on a smile, dusting off his armor. “Luckily you have the best knight around to teach you the basics of sword fighting.”

“Don’t we need to get his weapons ban from the king lifted first?” Aaron added, spinning his shield under his arm as they loaded back up.

“Ooh, we do,” Jestro realized aloud.

Chapter Text

Merlok turned back and forth, searching for something to say. Ava leaned limply in her chair, staring at the giant screen. Robin sat on the round table’s top with the wooden sword Clay had given him, blinking as his eyes brimmed with tears.

Macy pulled off her helmet, sweat and dust dimming her face. Axl set aside his armor and retreated to the kitchen, followed by banging pots and kettles as he mentally calculated a number of comfort potatoes. Lance turned to Ava’s screen as she dryly clicked on the news.

Jestro held onto Clay’s sword, unsure where to set it.

“I don’t believe it!” Lance complained aloud. Everyone glanced over. He was glaring at the holovision and Herb Herbertson’s report at the scene. “One busted interview and I’m replaced? Fickle entertainment industry!”

“Are you serious?” Macy barked from the hall. “I don’t want to hear one entitled word out of you, you- entitled, selfish-”

“Look, I’m sorry,” Lance interrupted.

Macy blinked in shock.

Lance folded his arms, frowning at the ground. “I was just counting on that job,” he muttered.

“Looks like we all have to shelf our old jobs,” Aaron remarked. He chuckled hoarsely. “I bet Brickland will still give Clay a piece of it for not coming to resign in person.”

At mention of the school, Robin flopped back with a depressed groan.

“Come along, lift your chins,” Merlok urged. “Yes, we might be short a very good knight, but we have much still to protect.” He was quiet for a moment, virtual eyes bobbing in worry. “Much to protect.”

Macy pressed a loose lock of hair back into her ponytail. “You,” she pointed at Jestro. She flickers her finger in and her thumb backward. “Training room.”

“Now?” Jestro asked.

“Clay’s not going to waste time. Neither am I.”

Jestro Oohed as the paneled room lit up in perfect recreation of a Knighton village.

Macy tossed him a wooden sword from the cabinet. “You’ll need strength training, definitely. But first, let’s get you adjusted to the downloads.”

She hesitated for a brief moment at the armory door. Clay had left his shield that morning.

She pulled it out. “Ava, the download will still work even if Jestro is holding the Moorington crest, right?”

“Uhh, probably,” she replied over the speaker. “We can design him his own if not.”

Silent under the implications, he took the shield. “Do I just… say it?”

“Just say it,” the wizard replied over a speaker.

Jestro swallowed all kinds of weirdness. “Merlok!” he called out, lifting the shield high. “NEX-O KNIGHT!”

A brilliant yellow sparkle struck his eyes. Nothing like the fire of previous battles, just… light. Light streaking through the lines like a sunrise. Then the surge of energy made his shaky hands slip and he nearly dropped the thing.

“Wo-hoah,” he laughed, taking it more firmly. He turned to a virtual tree and swung with his whole arm. The shield clunked awkwardly against his side. The wood swooshed through the hologram, doing nothing.

“Ah, right. Virtual targets,” Macy recalled as not to embarrass him. “Um, just show me your technique for now.”

He tried, unsure what his technique was, much less what it was supposed to be. Macy demonstrated with her own mace, turning the same tree into a strip of splinters.

“If I may interrupt,” Merlok interrupted, "you might wish to try this!” Merlok sent open a panel with what appeared to be a small jar with soap and a bubble wand.

“Oh, that brings me back,” Macy remarked, almost chuckling.

Jestro watched curiously as she picked up the bubbles and readied the miniature wand. “Use your sword to pop the bubbles. One hand.”

“It will likely be more beneficial if Jestro uses the weight he will have to use,” Merlok added.

“Right,” Macy mumbled for both of them. She took a step to the blue metal resting against the floor. She lifted her fingers under and bit her tongue as Jestro awkwardly took the metal again.

The bubbles came to life, glittering in the blue and white light. Jestro’s feet tip-tapped back and forth while his arm wobbled from the weight. A few of the bubbles burst by landing against the sword, but as he waved it back and forth trying to catch the full score, the draft sent them away to pop against nothing. Every spill of soap made the sword and the gazes over him heavier.

Macy ran the drill a second time and a third. Once Jestro finally insisted that his arm was going to fall off, Macy allowed him to switch back to the light wood. The handle was rougher but quicker to swish on command. On the first try, he popped nearly half the bubbles.

Meanwhile, Aaron ran through Robin’s build-up of inventions. The young boy was still too gloomy to theorize if he’d be working double time or hardly at all while they were facing the new Monstrox.

“Ooh-kay, time to get you to bed,” Axl remarked as he slumped over the desk. Robin didn’t complain much about being lifted over the giant’s shoulder.

Ava shooed away attempts at emotional consolation, already searching any of the kingdom’s cameras she could access for a sign of early movements. Lance complained about the time he’d have to find for Dennis to dust. Axl’s dinner platter was shared in silence.

Chapter Text

“Sheesh, I think I hit him too hard,” Monstrox muttered to himself. Clay was silent and steady as a machine; the sound of his footsteps could’ve stalked off in the wind. He stood quickly at attention whenever Monstrox turned around to give him a strange look. No sappy monologues were a plus, but the silence was getting creepy. At least the gargoyles pulled faster than Burnzie and Sparkks.

Parting through the unsettled dust, they reached a patient, lonely statue. The figure wore a carved hood masking its face, like Monstrox in his glory days. Its cloaked hands rested over a red tablet.

“Uh… aren't ya gonna ask what we need this statute for?” Monstrox asked, gesturing at the Rugal.

Clay shook his head no.

“I don’t mind saying Jestro was the more fun partner in crime.”

“That would be the first thing he’s exceeded me in.”

Monstrox chuckled. “So he admits it.” Shrugging it off, he sent a zap at the stone. It shattered into glowing rubble. A twisting tower of rock pulled up a stone head and torso. Yellow glowing eyes rose to life. A grin cracked Clay’s face as, unspeaking, the Rugal extended the scarlet stone. Clay fixed it in the staff without having to be directed.

Monstrox turned back to the Evil Mobile, but Clay remained, holding the staff in both of his hands.

At first, he thought the tablet lightened the metal staff, the magic energy hovering against gravity. But it was harder than that to place. The power hummed, and invisible sparks shot forth and soaked painlessly as rain into his skin. “This tablet… It’s more powerful than Nexo,” he said slowly.

Monstrox glanced back and laughed. “Wait’ll you try it.”

“Knights! I’m getting a huge magic signal from Armorville,” Ava called out. Up rose the faithful holovision news. A lightning-blue figure stood atop the banged-up Evil Mobile, firing streaks of angry, dark red energy. A turn of the camera exposed what might have once been a shop. The wind stained the camera and the air around it with red dust.

“Extraordinary exclamations!” Merlok shouted. “That’s the power of Relentless Rust!”

“Any intel coming up, magic man?” Ava asked, typing away to find the source of the signal. 

“No good news, I’m afraid! Monstrox has found something from long ago, before even he was separated in the Evil Books!”

“What? What is he looking for this time?” Macy pressed.

The wizard paused and stroked his beard. “That, I don’t recall.”

“We’ll figure it out on the way!” Aaron exclaimed, jumping for his mech.

Jestro looked for a moment at the holovision, then followed suit. He clutched Clay’s sword to his chest, with no scabbard to keep it from scratching the seats on bumps of the road.

“Hold it!” Aaron exclaimed to Jestro. He slammed on the brakes hard enough to nearly throw Jestro out. They swerved violently back to the Fortrex. “We need to find you some armor!”

“WHAT?!” Jestro exclaimed in horror, clutching the sword tighter.

The armor was horribly stiff and even heavier so. It was almost comical. The stone soldiers breifly paused their ransacking to meet the knights. Buildings crumbled, like before. People ran screaming, like always. This time, Jestro had to duck and dodge through a torrent of rocks, stumbling foolishly in fittingly named ‘chainmail.’ He tripped over nothing and the weight brought him to the ground.

In a blink, he looked up at the Evil Mobile. Clay’s gleaming eyes were on him. The rage in his face was even stranger than the flickering blue light.

“Bring me back my sword,” the knight ordered.

Jestro jumped back up, retreating until he backed into an overturned cart. The sword and shield lit up as one of the others activated the download. The monsters swarmed, screeching and hissing on top of punches and jabs. It was louder on the battlefield than above it.

Jestro crammed the shield behind his back and grasped the sword handle in both hands. Swinging the sword like a bat, he smacked the statues back for a short second. He gasped in slight affront: they barely froze, much less vanished like the Lava Monsters did.

Clay leaned forward, his heart jolting like lightning. Jestro, ducking frantically from the golems, was wearing his armor.

Jestro cried out in pain and alarm as red light tasting of scorched metal ran through him. The helmet rattled around his head before it vanished. Burning rust filled his eyes.

The fiery energy circled around him once, twice, then ran off to the metals in the ground. Jestro managed to grab the sword and shield before he hit the ground. Thankfully neither were made of the same metal, only dusted on the outside. Free from the weight, he bolted to dive under a cart. He grasped the tokens tightly to his chest. Considering their job done, the stone soldiers returned to overturning the remaining walls with brute force.

Blinking out the rust, Jestro scanned hurriedly for breaks in his skin the magic could’ve crept through. There were none, at least visible under the red mess where Clay's armor had been. A pain pierced under the bruises on his chest. Without time to think it through, he took the sword and shield by their proper handles.

Jumping haphazardly, he clipped past monster wings and elbows. He ran too fast to tell if the statues were nicked, but could reasonably guess. Nonetheless, with his wind and the knights’ power, they moved quickly enough to frustrate Monstrox.

“We got enough testing,” he said to Clay, grinning vainly. “Let ‘em stew to see the next one.”

Clay obeyed.

Jestro kept swinging blindly, even after the monsters stopped attacking. Once they parted around the damage, falling back to HQ, he finally stopped to catch his breath.

“They retreated,” he said between gasps. “They actually-!” His excitement ceased as he looked over at the knights. They were slouched wearily, uninjured but out of energy, except for perhaps Macy. One by one, they turned and looked back at the town. The people carefully touched out of hiding. Their dismay rained through the air, darkening the clouds.

The town tasked with most of the kingdom’s metal work, crowned with aluminum roofs, carbon steel window frames, and iron gates, was a playground of crumbled stone and red dust.

…

“Now that the important stuff is done,” Monstrox chuckled, “I guess I can make a proper introduction to your new career. Unto Mount Thunderstruck!” he barked at the gargoyles. Their speed surged, and Clay hopped aboard the Evil Mobile just in time. “And try to listen a little more animated, huh?” he directed the knight. “Shows I have good things to say.”

Clay steadied his posture, adjusting to the weight of the staff. “I’ll try.”

Monstrox frowned at him for a moment. “Sit down,” he ordered flatly, tilting toward the chair. “Not like I can use it.”

Was it his imagination? Clay gave the subtlest sigh of annoyance. “As you wish.”

“I wish. Ya see, knight, I used to be teammates of sorts with that Mer-loser. The ‘Council of Wizards,’" he said with a certain flourish, “had a number of more impressive wizards, but that kooky mage was, uh, kooky enough that he kept out of all the battling, the real stuff that banished and killed off most of the wizards.”

Clay raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Unfortunately,” Monstrox continued, “one wizard was all the lovely king and queen of the time needed to trip me on my way to gathering the powers they didn’t want anyone else to have. That special piece of stone? It’s just part of a tea set.”

Clay looked back at Relentless Rust, taking in the potential.

Monstrox sighed. “It’s a shame, really. The Council really could’ve been something excellent. Well, now it’s up to us to track down Merlok’s hiding places.”

“Don’t you think he’ll have learned his lesson? What’s to keep him from destroying the powers before we reach them?”

Monstrox laughed. “Think he's smart enough?"

Clay shrugged.

"Even if he manages to find a rugal before we do and destroy it without blowing something up, they're potent enough that we only need so many. But it’ll be a good while before he gets the technical guts to face what’ll happen when we do.”

“What will happen?”

“Now, I won’t spoil the surprise,” Monstrox replied. “But it’ll be a storm of destruction unlike anything your old friends have ever seen.” He couldn’t help but laugh.

Clay nodded. “Then we can overthrow the king and queen and take their places on the thrones.”

“You think of that all by yourself? And here I was thinking you couldn’t really be bad,” Monstrox teased. Then he smiled thoughtfully. “Did my spell channel a present pride, I wonder, or spawn totally new, evil thoughts inside your jockish head?”

Clay folded his arms, the excellent bitterness in his eyes darkening. “You know perfectly well what it did.”

Monstrox paused. “Yeah, guess I do,” he shrugged dismissively. “But we’re not whipping Knighton into a decent, evil shape. It’s too fluffy-far-gone for that! Nah,” he chucked, cheering himself up. “We’re wiping this place off the map.” If he could, he would fold his arms proudly. “What do ya think of that, ‘Noble Knight?’”

A pause, then amusement, dark and fiery, rose from the depth of his throat. Cackling rose solitary as the Evil Mobile clawed its way to the mount. Monstrox watched with a satisfied smile, only slightly wondering what he was getting into.

The harpies and gargoyles remained at the base of the mountain, uncomfortable with the constant storm swirling over the sky. Monstrox soared up, admiring the crown of pillars from above. The height preserved the intricate carvings along the ground, circle after circle coming into the center. “Alright, Moorington,” he ordered. “Transfer Forbidden Power!”

Clay lifted up the staff and sank the key end into the stone.

“That’s it?” Monstrox muttered.

“That’s what you needed, is it not?”

He scoffed lightly. “Jestro would just throw in a dumb rhyme or something.”

Clay looked at him dryly. Maintaining eye contact, he twisted the stone slot like a key. In a pulse of red light, Relentless Rust liquified. He locked both hands down, as the evil seemed to shake with excitement. The mountain's plates began to spin. Red-black liquid seeped through the carving of the staff, spilling down into the ground as the plates twisted and turned. With a heavy clunk, the stones fit together, forming a path for the potion. Once it hit the base of its pillar, the power turned against gravity without a pause, arching up until it seeped into a carved symbol. A crumbling helmet.

He lifted the staff out again. The weight surprised him, but he figured it was just his imagination.

Chapter Text

Ava was in a bit of shock. Had they actually lost? Apparently so, as it took hours for the knights to finish pulling people out of wreckage before they could return to the Fortrex. Robin immediately disappeared in his engineering room, but no one reacted to the noises of clattering supplies.

“Merlok, what exactly do you know of the deal with that tablet?” Aaron asked.

“A Forbidden Power, I believe they have been called. One of many I’m sure.”

“We were a mess out there,” Axl reported gruffly. “No strategy or anything! We can’t go in again without proper battle formation.”

“Does anyone know where Clay keeps them?” Aaron asked.

“His room, but he’s the only one who can explain them,” Lance grumbled, attempting to press a dent out of his collar.

“Are you feeling alright, Jestro?” Aaron turned to him. “I saw that spell hit you.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Not like it was the first time,” he joked lightly.

He regretted it as weary silence chilled the room.

Jestro backed up, feebly explaining he was going to check on Robin.

He peeked inside the engineering room, scattered with parts. “Whatcha working on?”

“I’m not sure if it’ll work yet,” Robin replied without looking up from his work, which appeared to be digging through a closet. “But the metal endoskeleton of the Nexo weapons is stainless, among other things,” he chuckled at what appeared to be an inside joke. “If I can find enough of it- and that bending brake, I know it’s around here somewhere- I should be able to proof the knight’s armor from the Forbidden Powers! Oh, and make you a new suit,” he added.

Jestro’s eyes glowed with delight. He couldn’t grasp Robin’s mental picture, but it sounded brilliant. “About that,” he said, losing optimism, “I don’t think I can fight very well in armor.” He sat down next to the pile of scrap and helped dig. “Or really, at all.”

“Details, details,” Robin replied. “We’ll just fit you with a battle mech. Or maybe some other tool for storing Merlok’s downloads if you want to use magic. Anything, really!”

“Huh,” Jestro smiled tentatively. “Is this part of an endoskeleton?” he asked, picking up a shiny piece of something.

“No, I’ll have to build that from scratch.”

“Ooh, how about this?” Jestro picked up another.

“That’s my try square. I don’t think I’ll need it for this.”

“What about this one?”

“Do you even know what that is?”

“A dogleg reamer. Why?”

“Actually, I think I've been looking for that,” the boy said, taking it.

Meanwhile, Macy broke down the uncomfortable silence. “Guys, while Clay- can’t lead us, I think he would want me to. I’ve trained with him the longest, I’ve known you all the longest, I’d like to think I have a lot at stake here-”

“I was thinking he would want the opposite,” said Aaron.

Macy turned toward him, surprised at his interruption and more surprised to see solemnity in his face.

“We can’t risk Monstrox singling you out.” He shrugged off her glaring frown. “We’ll have to improvise for a little while.”

“Pst! Ava!” Robin whispered, reappearing suddenly.

“We’re having a thinking moment,” Ava whispered back.

“I need to see everyone's Nexo weapons!” He gestured quickly at Jestro. “Jestro thinks Monstrox won’t use the same trick twice, so we have time to gather the metal to make new suits that won’t be damaged by the powers!”

“Now that you mention it, I’ve been thinking of an upgrade to our download system,” Ava mused.

“So what if we rewire the shields to combine Nexo powers-” Robin asked.

“To make lasting damage on those stone soldiers!”

“Mixing magic spells? That’s a risk and an art form,” Merlok remarked uncertainly.

“I like it!” Aaron announced, throwing a fist into his palm. The rest of the day, therefore, was dedicated to scrubbing off rust and assisting the young geniuses.

“Pass me that wrench?” Macy asked. She and Jestro wound some spring or another around, from Ava’s instruction. Jestro passed it.

“Are you doing okay?” he asked carefully. The princess’s fire was an odd, pale color.

“Sure, sure,” she replied quickly. She pinched the tight wire shut with impressive ease. “I just want to be helpful, that’s all.”

“...Right. Me too,” Jestro mumbled, suddenly motivated to finish quickly.

As the sky turned gray, Aaron asked where Jestro had been staying.

“Flat just outside the capitol. Why?”

Aaron adjusted his headphones to pick up whispers. “I chatted with Merlok. While we’re short for Clay, we could really use you on call.”

“Oh, I have a phone,” Jestro assured.

Aaron chuckled. “I mean, we might need you to stay with Fortrex.”

“WHAT?” Jestro exclaimed. He quickly took Aaron’s signal to hush. “I’m not a knight!”

“I know. But you know Clay and Monstrox. You know the… headspace.”

Jestro grimaced, which Aaron took to mean reluctance.

“It’s up to you. But I really think it would be in everyone’s best interest.”

Jestro was only thinking how to explain that one or maybe two more battles would turn him to painted jelly when something shook the walls. The ground quickly followed. 

“Hissing Harpies!” Merlok exclaimed. “We have harpies!” His connection flickered dangerously as the three stone sisters’ cackling rang outside.

The knights exchanged wide-eyed glances. Since when did Monstrox launch attacks so close to each other? Haphazardly, they scrambled to get their armor back.

“Merlok!” Ava called out. “Merlok!” When he didn’t respond, she threw the main power to the engine. The car lurched forward.

Jestro hit the ground chin-first and used the position to crawl to a window. His first few days of villainy were coming back quickly. If he could talk to Clay, he had to do it now, before that spell and Monstrox got a solid hold. (However he could manage that…) He stuck his head out, stomach churning as he looked at the wheels below. Scraps from the roof littered the path behind them, but the Fortex wall blocked the harpies and Clay.

Realizing she couldn’t shake the harpies, Ava halted the Fortrex. It jerked violently again. Lights sparked and shut off as Merlok, while he still had circuits, rerouted a spell code to the ceiling. The harpies just giggled with delight.

They skipped around the sparks, clawing past the solar panels and into the delicate inner wiring. The knights charged out the drawbridge door. Jestro followed as far as he could without letting go of the doorway. The back of his neck tingled, but twisting to the left and right and left again, there was no sign of Clay or Monstrox. 

The knights scrambled to reach the roof, but before they got the chance, there was a sharp, rubber-and-wire ri-i-i-p! The sparks atop the Fortrex flickered out.

The three sisters rose back into view, flicking scraps of wire from their claws.

“Message!” the one with dark blue ears exclaimed.

“From Master Morrington!” the second added.

“‘Your move!’”

They flew off cackling.

Jestro blinked in shock. Now that he was a few steps outside the Fortex, he looked quickly around the perimeter. Aaron, Macy, Axl, and Lance did the same, realizing together: Clay hadn’t come.

“...Guys?” Robin called.

Inside was the sound of Ava’s frantic typing.

“No. Nonono,” the girl whispered. She stood up sharply. The knights' hearts went cold as she looked to them as if for direction. “They shut off Merlok!”

Chapter Text

“Can I say you have a strange recruitment style?” Clay asked dryly.

“Arnoldi is against the king, isn’t he? And he’s cheaper than digging up more chipped statues,” Monstrox added under his breath.

“I heard that!'' the sculptor shouted from below. He pressed his mustache down as he chiseled away. “I consider this ‘transitional work,’ for’a the big times.”

“How are you progressing, anyway?” Clay asked.

“Ahh… the inspiration for the Mobile is going the slow and steady route. But your new soldiers have promise!” He held up one of the better models.

“...A gnome?” Clay asked.

“Durable, sharp. And all you need is a face and a form, yes? Leaves room for artistic expression!”

“That, and you had to get rid of unsold stock,” Monstrox mumbled. The two of them looked at the tiny army blankly. “Artists, they’re blockheads under the makeup and hairdos,” he grumbled under his breath.

“What’s that?” Arnoldi asked sharply.

“I said those gnomes work perfectly!” Monstrox chuckled for believability. With a plastered smile, he turned over the lightning.

The gnomes jumped to life, faces glowering, spitting hoarsely. Their arms and legs were carved too close to their bodies for fine movement, but they jumped up and down stiffly, cracking at the dirt ground and mountain walls.

“Huh… ‘blockhead.’ Head… in a block…” Arnoldi muttered to himself, looking back at his rocky canvas.

As he got back to work, the harpies’ shadows spilled in to report. 

“Hilda, Ingrid, Ulkira,” Clay greeted. “The Fortrex?”

“Dead!” Hilda exclaimed.

“As a doornail!” Ulkria finished just as Ingrid tried to say, “In the water.” They frowned at each other.

“And my message?”

“Signed!”

“Sealed.”

“De-livered.”

“And I trust you returned quickly enough not to be tracked?”

“Of course!”

“Obviously.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

“So, you send ‘messages’ already?” Monstrox asked.

“I was sure you’d approve.”

“No, no, I like the initiative. I wouldn’t say you’ve been eviler, but it’s surely more effective than the plans Jestro and I came up with. Now that Merlok is offline,” Monstrox turned, clearly onto the part of the conversation he was looking forward to, “make as many gnomes as you can! Then let’s see what they can do.”

Arnoldi carved away. Clay sat back on the throne and took the chance to close his eyes.

He woke early by habit. For a moment, he just saw the dim, calm sky. Then the spell jolted through his skin again. He rose stiffly from the throne and turned to a settling cloud of dust. Arnoldi gave a long sigh, rolling out aching wrists. He glanced back at Clay and gestured tiredly at the new mobile. It was a dark granite machine in the shape of a knight’s helmet.

Clay fanned the air in front of Monstrox to wake him. “I daresay we won’t need to make a habit of retreating with this.”

Monstrox agreed, a wild smile splitting over his form.

Arnoldi just yawned. “Inspiration! She is the rapturous conversationalist…”

Jestro ran with the knights into Aurumville, rubbing his eyes; it wasn’t easy to sleep in new places. At one point the previous night, he couldn’t go back to sleep, and ended up juggling some of Clay’s things for nerves. None of them fell, but that wasn’t necessarily going to be the case today.

The gnomes looked a little silly at first, then their mouths cracked open, screaming wordlessly. In waves, they flung themselves hat-first at the decorated walls of the mining village. People and pets fled, distress quickly filling the air as the intricate houses crumbled.

Among the chaos, Jestro and Macy backed into each other. She jumped and almost swung at him before catching herself. “Well, the good news is Clay’s here,” she grunted, turning back to deflect a gnome. It landed wedged in the ground where two siblings with pickaxes smashed it in two. Her ponytail snapped like a whip as she turned to the new rolling fortress. “I’m getting to him!”

Jestro wasn’t going to interject, but she excused herself quickly anyway, battering her way through the monsters.

“Ah… And who’s the lady coming toward us with a certain fury?” Arnoldi asked nervously. Monstrox opened his mouth, but the knight beat him to it.

“You’ve been in exile for too long." He lowered a stolen visor, meeting Macy’s eye through it as she advanced. “Don’t you recognize our princess?”

Macy leaped onto the uneven stone ground which stopped the Black Knight from rolling further forward. She cleared the last of the gnomes and grabbed onto the front of the rolling fortress. Arnoldi quickly stepped back.

She landed her knee and let out a breath, resting her mace behind her.

“Clay!” she called out. Taking in his eyes, her breath seized up like a long dress demanding to be stepped on, but she had never let that stop her. “Clay, it’s me.” She rose up to her feet, just daring Monstrox to try to push her off. “You don’t have to be here. You don’t have to listen to him.”

Clay’s gaze followed her, tilting into the shadow of the morning. She drew near enough to reach him if only he’d reach back.

“Come on. Come back home.”

“You really think I can?” he asked quietly.

The knight stepped up to the ridge of the platform. Arnoldi raised an eyebrow, glancing at Monstrox and gesturing at the scene as if he would intervene.

Macy set her mace in its holster to balance. She turned her hand toward him and smiled.

The scrape of uncleaned rust accented Clay’s stone sword as he pulled it from his scabbard. A cold, faintly glowing grin crept from under his mask. He laughed, cold and powerful as a lightning storm. “You really think I can?!”

Macy gasped and recoiled, almost somersaulting down the rock as she avoided a swing of his blade. Survival instinct tore out her shield and mace, pushing back as he tried to cut them from her hand.

Lance bounded up the broken side of a building to snatch a family’s savings chest from being crushed. He dropped it outside without a plan when he saw the scene on the other side of the cloud of dust.

His mouth went dry as Macy stumbled back, nearly tumbling from the base of the mountain.

Hardly looking down, Lance grabbed a gnome by the head. “Well Clay…” he muttered, winding the thing over his shoulder. “Guess you finally need me-” he hitched up his breath, “to knock some sense into YOU!”

The stone went flying. It sailed several yards, arching over heads, into the front of the Black Knight. Macy ducked just in time under Clay’s swing.

A crack resounded through the battlefield. Clay’s shadow, his neck arched back with recoil, fell long over the battlefield.

“What-” Aaron stammered.

“You actually managed-” Axl agreed.

Macy looked up, seizing her mace fearfully.

Lance stared, dumbfounded. He swallowed thoughtfully. “Hm. That wasn’t as satisfying as I thought it would be when he interrupted my beauty naps.”

Monstrox stared as well, open-mouthed as Clay stumbled back against the front of the Black Knight. Shaky but remaining on his feet, he wiped a rich stain of red from his lower lip.

“Time to go!” the necromancer decreed. The front of the Knight flicked open and Clay, leaning on it for balance, immediately fell inside. The helmet slammed shut.

“Retreat protocol drill! Practice drill, Arnoldi!” Monstrox barked at the sculpture.

“I’m practicin’, I’m practicin’,” Arnoldi muttered, flicking rocks from the wheels with his pick. The Black Knight rolled directly backward, plowing a path to Diggington.

Macy scaled a few steps up the rocks to avoid the gnomes as they followed, stomping. She would’ve sent some flying like golf balls, were her mace not trembling in her hand.

“What was that, you- you gray knight?” Monstrox exclaimed as Clay was released back into the open air. He scrutinizingly checked the lightning running over the knight’s skin. “I’m beginning to think your heart isn’t as black as it’s supposed to be,” he hissed.

Clay didn’t reply, tracing his mouth for broken teeth. He found none, though he had no idea Lance could throw like that.

“You froze up! And don’t try to think you didn’t. What, are you losing your nerve fighting your friends!?’' he mocked. “They’re weaker! They always have been!” As he ranted, Monstrox quickly dished out electrical spells, kicking chipped stone monsters off the mobile and to their feet.

“I… apologize,” Clay said, his voice slightly muffled by swelling. “It won’t happen again.”

“I wish that were the only problem!” Monstrox exclaimed. “You humans-”

“Aren’t you human?”

Monstrox thundered dangerously. “Shut your mouth.”

Clay obeyed.

“Humans can be good spell-casters, but you’re fragile,” he continued. “Even if you stay out of battle, you break so easily-” He stopped. Clay felt something inside him want to shudder. He pulled his hand from his face, letting whatever red was left to its peace.

“Knight,” Monstrox remarked, speaking evenly now. “How do you feel about growing skin as tough as those guys?” he gestured toward the stone soldiers.

“Do you have to ask?”

“Now, I’ve never tried it on flesh and blood…” he thought aloud, before grinning and deciding it was worth the risk.

“Master Mon-” Clay started to say before the colors in the air flipped inside out. Electricity poured through him too quickly to hurt. He meant to shudder, but his flesh seized as if gravity had increased a hundred times over. He nearly stumbled, pressing a hand to the gash on his face again. Instinct told him blood was spitting out like something was emptying his veins.

The shock faded. As the light disappeared from over his body, he found no more blood down his chin than before. In fact, the pain from his mouth was turned down, like a lake iced over on the surface. He let his hand fall, disoriented. The air was tinted yellow.

Monstrox hovered down, spotting something on Clay’s face that made him grin.

Clay blinked, but the hue in his vision didn’t go away.

“Not sure how long it’ll take to replace your metal armor,” Monstrox explained. “But either way… it’ll work.”

Clay’s breath came in shakily. He pressed down his hand to keep from tracing over the mark, which suddenly stopped bleeding.

Chapter Text

“I’m not injured,” Macy insisted as Aaron and Lance trailed her frettingly back to the mechs. “Let’s just- get back to home base, alright?”

There, Robin ran out to delightedly announced the new armor prototypes. “Ready and polished! You could start training with them today!”

The knights and Jestro all looked for someone else to reply.

“... Aren't you guys excited?” Robin asked. “I mean, it’s new armor!”

“It looks great,” Aaron said for all of them.

“And… you won, right?”

Macy walked over and picked up her helmet, turning it around to see every angle. She smiled slightly. “Thanks, Robin. They look good.”

There was a pause. It didn’t take long for Macy to notice the eyes on her. She set the helmet back. “I’m going to visit my parents,” she said. She took off her own helmet and set it under her arm.

“For how long?” Aaron asked.

“There’s Merlok code in the palace library, right? I’ll be your reference there.” She set her armor down in the mech’s trunk and got in. Lance and Aaron stepped to stop her, but Axl raised his hands in front of them.

Macy rested her hands on the steering wheel without starting the engine. Her tired eyes glanced back over her friends. “Jestro?” she asked.

He slipped back down the ramp and to her door.

“What does Monstrox’s spell actually do?” She rubbed her eyes. “You were there, you saw it. Can a wizard really make someone like Clay do that?”

Jestro looked down. His memories of the spell had grown clearer since leaving it. But they didn’t make more sense. “It…” he started, “It makes your anger, your fear, everything bad inside louder. Then it takes what you want, the good things you want, and-” He clenched his fists. “Just holds onto them.”

Macy stared at nothing outside her window, resting her head on the wheel. Her hand hovered over the key. “You know what,” she sighed without starting the engine. “I can call my mom and dad from here.”

Jestro smiled in relief and followed her back inside. She scaled the drawbridge and called Aaron, “I think you were right.”

“Really?” he chuckled. “About what?”

“Clay wouldn’t want me to lead us in battle.” She pointed at the emblem, an orange fox, on his chestplate. “He’d want you to.”

Aaron stepped slightly back in shock. “Really?" he asked again. "Are you sure?”

Macy nodded. “You’ve held your ground in battle.”

“You take good risks,” Axl added.

Lance nodded, only slightly pained to pay someone else a compliment. “Clay… wouldn’t complain. Well, he might complain, but-”

“Yeah!” Jestro interrupted. “We need it.”

Aaron smiled soberly. “Guys…” he laughed nervously. He stood a little taller. “This’ll be the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced. I… I’ll do no less than my best.”

Pink returned to Macy’s pale face and she smiled.

Chapter Text

Aaron took up his promise quickly. He decoded most of Clay’s strategy notes and the ones he couldn’t, he rebuilt a bit less predictably than they were before. When the stress seemed to be getting to him, Jestro startled him (first accidentally) by throwing a rubber ball near his head, which evolved into casual juggling lessons.

“I’m a simple man, really,” the daredevil joked. “Give me a shield and something to do with it and I’m happy.”

After about two weeks of sore training, the knights were invited to an art museum’s grand opening.

Macy and Aaron studied the invitation scrutinizingly.

“Monstrox is gonna crash it for the statues,” Aaron remarked.

“He’s totally gonna crash.”

Brows were high already on their arrival and luckily had no room to rise further in distaste when they showed up in full armor. The knights enjoyed a few hours of merry culture. Lance tested how long he could smuggle his pet pig, Hameletta, while both Macy and Jestro hovered wordlessly in the main room, closest to all people and exists.

Macy would have preferred to stay with her friends. But lingering near the curator who was entertaining her parents made it easier to casually suggest-  as it was already a closed event- they seal up the security shutters to show the art in its tastefully designed lighting. Though it puzzled some of the guests, the man was happy to accommodate.

The night went on late enough for the knights to hope their fears were unfounded. They were, until the sky outside darkened.

“Your majesties, your majesties!” a squirebot called out, running up to them. “Our security system has been breached!”

“Eh? How so?” King Halbert asked. “Hacking? Or just the cultural raccoons making a fuss?” he chuckled.

“No, sire. It looks like… our security system has just… vanished!”

Eyes turned to the windows. Rust spilled past the windows where the metal grate had been. Paintings shuddered slightly on their strings.

The walls shook with a boom. The ornate double doors caved in.

“This- actually isn't the reason I hate evening parties, but it’s up there,” Macy muttered.

The dust hadn’t settled before Clay stalked into the heart of the museum.

Axl was on post at the entrance. He wasted no time pulling in front of Clay and spared no energy to send him back. The giant’s eyes widened in shock when his fist met Clay’s chest. They both recoiled and Clay got back up faster.

The guests shrieked and shrank back as he made a quick way through the statue room. The harpies tore open the ceiling and Monstrox followed with a bright bolt of lightning. As the air of the room vanished, it struck down at the statue in the center. Rocks tumbled from the podium, then the hooded figure rose to life.

Clay reached to take it when Axl jumped, landing a hand on the tablet. He was thrown back instantly as it sparked.

Clay's eyes flickered in shock, then he put the power into the staff and gestured for the rope to be lowered down.

“What!” Monstrox exclaimed at the hurry of a job. “At least test the thing!” He shook his mist at the inexperienced apprentice. “Al-right, I’ll give you some backup.” With another bolt, the statues lining the walls lit up.

The knights leaped to defend. Lance directed the guests toward the door just before a goddess of some sort grabbed his lance and tried to tear it from his hands.

“You should know a bit about the art you’re fighting,” Clay remarked, turning the faintly glowing staff in his hand. “Aaron, that statue trying to swat you out of the air is a copy of Michelangelo’s David, representing the perfection of the human form.”

Aaron flipped, nearly knocking into the celing.

“Careful, Macy,” Clay added as she ducked under a set of flying bowls stacked inside each other. “Abstracts can be very challenging for their audiences!”

She roared with frustration and shattered the thin stone.

With another bolt, what everyone had assumed was a coat rack lit up and began chasing the curator. Arnoldi shouted from the ceiling as well, daring him to ‘minimize his masterpieces’ again.

Finally, a rope was lowered down. Clay tugged it testingly.

“Well?” asked Montrox as he rose. “Do I have to explain everything? Bring the house down!”

Clay glanced back at the knights. His eyes gleamed. With a slice of the staff, a flash of blue streaked toward Lance. He jumped in alarm but was barely pushed back before the spell dissipated.

“The armor works!” Jestro laughed nervously. “Good news, right?”

Clay hooked an arm over the escape hatch. A second blast swung, wider and unaimed.

The streak of light scorched against the wall. It seemed to only leave a black mark before a quiet rumbling grew loud.

“EverYONE OUT!” Aaron shouted.

Calamity ensued, though the harpies escaped with Clay before the dust could dirty his heels.

The curator scrambled about, trying to save the lighter pieces. The queen tried to shove him out before the king recalled his battle suit left at the door. It seemed very regal for the ribbon cutting. Scooping up wife and host, he skidded through the wings, guests latching on as he went. More than one sharp corner made the suit contact with a wall. More pieces came crashing down, cracking the marble floors.

“Leave the statues!” Aaron directed, kicking off of David. “Axl, hold up the doorway! Everyone else, get the guests out!”

Seconds grew short and minutes stretched tight. The five lost track of each other, dashing in and out. Crumbling rocks caught on armor, taking chips of the new shields.

“This way, ma’am!” Jestro shouted to one of the patrons. “Western Recreations is under renovation!”

She gave him a tense glance and ran for the other door.

“I- okay.” He ducked around the rumble and spilled out of the way outside.

Lance and Macy took a flying leap and landed nearby, just as the building’s trembling metal frame turned into a heap. The king immediately ejected to check for nicks on Macy. She didn’t remain still long enough, quickly running a headcount with Aaron.

“Where’s-” she choked on the dust, “Where’s Axl?”

Jestro and the rest looked back at the rubble, eyes wide in horror.

The dust was still settling. Pebbles crumbled off the wreckage.

A rumbling came from between the exit and the statue room. It seemed to only be settling before a large boulder shuddered and tipped over. Armor thoroughly dented, Axl pushed into the open.

He gasped for a full breath and violently coughed. The knights hurried to pull him free. Jestro followed as soon as he shook off the shock.

Axl dug out the dust from his ears as the curator took to settling the crowd. He sighed heavily and fell on his back.

"Do you have Hamelletta?” Lance blurted, teary-eyed. “I lost her on the way out!”

Axl unlocked his shoulder guard without sitting up. The pig stuck her head out, bow slightly askew. Lance scooped her up, joyfully nuzzling her ears.

Macy rolled her eyes at the blond. “Are you okay?” she asked Axl.

“I miss Clay,” he mumbled.

They returned to the Fortex. The knights raced each other to the showers. Before he could join, Merlok checked Axl for any abrasions. When none were found, the knight trod off to make dinner.

Jestro glanced after him. He didn’t mind the dirt so much after the cool of the evening. A bit shyly, he peeked into the kitchen and took to washing his hands. “Too bad about the museum.”

Axl nodded.

“It kinda reminds me of the Knight’s Academy,” he added, smiling to himself.

“Really?” Axl asked. “How?”

Jestro thought but wasn’t entirely sure how to put it. He settled on, “The window lights in the evening. It made me think of how the Academy looked when I was working at the carnival.” His eyes lit up, forgetting about the water. “Axl!” he exclaimed. “Remember those booths I used to drag you guys to on weekends?”

“You only dragged Clay,” Axl chuckled. “The rest of us willingly sacrificed our extra-credit practice.” His eyes turned dreamily hazy, muscle memory working at the stove. “And if we stayed to closing, we could get the extra donut holes, blueberry pie… Wasn’t there a summer where you worked with-”

“The corn dogs!” Jestro exclaimed, bouncing on his heels. “Miss Honey never officially apprenticed me, but I spent so much time there, I got to help when she was putting out fires and things,” he explained rapid-fire. “But! Didn't I tell you? Before she moved away, as an early graduation gift, since she knew I loved them so much, she showed me the secret for her salted corn dogs!”

Axl’s tired eyes nearly popped out of his head. “She did?” He quickly put the pot on the simmer. “Were you sworn to secrecy? Can I be sworn in??”

“Yes, kind of, and yes,” Jestro nodded urgently. “I don’t know if I can recite it, I- I just have to show you! Can I show you?”

“For Miss Honey’s salted corn dogs? My kitchen is yours! You gotta turn off the sink, though,” he added.

“Ooh, right!”

The two bit their lips to keep the secret as Aaron, Macy, Lance, Robin, and Ava tried the recollected recipe. Ava and Robin, though certainly impressed, looked around confused as Aaron burst out laughing. Macy looked around for the culprit, eyes wide with surprise. Lance slammed the table, rattling his plate, and stood in shock.

“YOU MADE MS. HONEY’S SALTED CORN DOGS?!” they exclaimed in such powerful unison that Jestro nearly kicked out of his chair.

“Ye-yeah,” he laughed. “You guys actually remember her?”

“‘Do I remember?’” Macy scoffed. “If it wasn’t for those carnival visits, we all would’ve been robbed of witnessing how much greasy food Lance can actually eat!”

“Processed gold can be so tasteless after a while,” the blond sighed in self-pity.

“And of the only thing that could convince Clay to have meaningless fun for a day,” added Aaron.

“It wasn’t so meaningless,” said Axl. “My ma had good seasons selling with those vendors.”

They continued to chatter well after Robin and Ava lost interest. Axl and Jestro committed nearly every free minute the next week to baking the fame-worthy corndogs and sending them to friends, as only memory of the beloved woman could be found after the years. The extras were most appreciated after the power of Ravaging Rot was collected, and did its share of damage.

Chapter Text

It was subtle at first. Pretty, pretty subtle. Axl was still taking a daily third of his weight in food, but also woke up earlier to ensure there was enough breakfast and dinner for everyone. Lance took to making sure Dennis had calibrated the mechs and other group chores before fluffing his sheets. Macy’s training was madness, even to the other knights. Yet she skipped breaks and frequently continued even into the night. By the time Aaron took a crack at annotating the knight’s code, it had begun to freak Jestro out.

“Psst, Robin!”

The junior knight glanced from his busy tinkering. “Oh, hey, Jestro!” he replied brightly.

“Do you know what’s going on with the knights?”

“No… What’s going on?”

Jestro relayed what he’d gathered.

“Uh… Huh,” the boy remarked as he searched his own memory. He’d simply blamed everyone’s miscoloring on shock and worry.

“They’re trying to fill up Clay’s spot." Ava strolled into the mech room. “Do you have that circuit board I lent you? Aaron and Axl are hogging the main computer.”

“Oh, yeah, somewhere around here,” Robin replied, disappearing into a closet of computer doodads.

“They’re… trying to be like Clay?” Jestro repeated.

“It’s a regular game of copycat. We learned the hard way that this place falls apart pretty quickly without him."

Jestro gave a puzzled look.

"When he went on vacation, around the time of the Book of Cruelty,” she added.

“Oh,” Jestro said, rubbing the back of his neck. The knights taking Clay's spot made sense. In fact, he could expect it from them. At the same time, did it mean they were giving up?

“He'll want the ship in shape when he gets back, anyway." Ava opened another box.

Jestro blinked in surprise, to which she added, “You read pretty easy.”

“I don’t think it’s in here.” Robin rose out of the closet. “Maybe I left it with the circuits for the training room,” he thought aloud. “Be right back.”

“All in all, I think they’re fine,” Ava continued. “We’ll keep the Fortrex in good condition and… it’ll keep us busy.”

Jestro tossed a trinket between his hands, staring back at the hall to the main room. There had to be something he could do before the knights crumbled like a cookie from the strain.

“I suppose it’s good Monstrox didn’t nab you again. We’ll need the emotional glue,” Ava added, scrutinizing a board that might temporarily work.

“Okay, now you’re freaking me out. Can you read my mind?” he asked suspiciously.

To his surprise, Ava grinned slightly. “Sorry.” She then sighed and continued digging. Jestro almost figured that was it, until she spoke again.

“I have a friend who lives in this city pretty far away from here. She writes to me sometimes, talking about this team a lot like the Nexo Knights.”

Jestro stopped juggling, then sat crisscross among the metal trinkets.

Ava continued without noticeably slowing down. “Her city’s protectors have been a team longer than we have, and I hear they are very, very good at what they do. There’s a lot of crazy magic in that part of the world, too, so there have been a few situations when one of the teammates was declared dead in the fighting, but got to come back later because of some technological or magical miracle.”

“Wow,” Jestro remarked. “Pretty lucky.”

Ava nodded and grasped the tools a little more tightly as she sorted. “But she’s also told me- even during danger or war- once one teammate is lost, the whole team starts to fall apart. Like they can’t relate to each other anymore. Not even while they’re facing the same thing.”

With an annoyed frown, she lifted the box and turned it upside down. The scrap clattered. When the circuit was nowhere to be found, she glared at the small mess with her arms folded.

“I don’t want that to happen with the knights,” Ava explained flatly.

Jestro looked down at the mess, then back at Ava. It struck him for the first time that she could still be at school if she wanted to. “It won’t.”

Ava looked up at him, scanning for evidence.

“It won’t,” he repeated. An idea was forming behind his head. One Ava couldn’t calculate. She nodded anyway.

“Can you help me put this back?”

Jestro did, and they managed to lift the box back onto its shelf.

“Found it!” Robin cried from the other room.

The clock ticked quickly in the stone army’s silences. Ava wasted no time explaining Merlok’s new system. Among the busted wiring, Jestro and the knights learned quickly how to put Robin’s project to work.

The Triangular could combine downloads. At least theoretically, it would give the knights enough juice to shatter the stone monsters. Ava was setting up a system of makeshift downloads when the screen behind her lit up; a wave of Forbidden magic echoed from Braveington.

“I spent a summer there once,” Aaron recalled, cracking his knuckles. “We should have some help from some of the boldest people in the kingdom.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t count on it,” Ava remarked, narrowing in on the signal.

They met the busy town from the side opposite the Black Knight. Well, it was usually busy, with people heaving giant blocks or spitting on the ground. Today, however, was silent. The knights pulled in on foot, quick but on-guard. They reached a well before Aaron nearly tripped over a man huddled against the stone.

“Woah- Are you alright? What happened?”

The Braveingtonian’s eyes were wide and white. He stammered unintelligibly, pointing forward with a trembling arm before he huddled to the ground again. The knights glanced at one another, and finding nothing, charged on. Houses were sealed up. Those still outside hid trembling behind anything they could find, eyes white with shock. The Black Knight stood at the edge of the road. Clay stood with one hand leaning forward on the platform rail. The other held the staff and a stone painted with a skull, mouth wide open as if in a scream.

“No fear!” Aaron shouted, jumping onto his hoverboard. “Axl, Macy, Jestro, look after the people! Lance!” he called, turning to the blond. “Remember capture maneuver C?”

Lance gave a short nod and sprinted after the archer.

Clay pushed up from the balcony and gestured for the gargoyles to turn them around. The heavy stone was just starting to pick up speed when the two knights were upon them. Lance jumped, planting his spear like a javelin. Wind tore past his face as he flung atop the platform. He was mere feet from taking down Clay with his landing when the knight turned and blinded him with a flash of yellow light. Clinging to his lance, every muscle suddenly taut, he wavered and crashed back to the ground. His eyes flooded white as the Black Knight slipped away.

Aaron looked fearfully back at Lance. He glared back at the shadow behind the violent light. “No fear,” he repeated to himself. Slicing through the cool air, he closed the gap between them. As the Black Knight picked up speed, an old friend of adrenaline flooded through him. Clay backed up, anger twisting his face. He fired again and again, but Aaron only laughed.

“You’ll have to do worse than-”

The words died in his mouth as Aaron swerved in front of the Black Knight. It drove forward with no intention of avoiding him. He narrowly kicked his hoverboard back into gear. He dove around, twisting to see Clay glare one more time and turn away. The ground met him sooner than expected.

Shoving through the dust left by the Black Knight, Macy and Axl ran to check on him. Jestro tried to help Lance up, the knight shuddering for his mama. As the spell steadily faded, house windows began to open and residents began to look around, unsure what they had been so afraid of. Aaron alone remained gasping for breath. He put a hand on his head to steady it and stood quickly.

“We need to get all our energy on finding Merlok,” he said quickly. The knights looked over, puzzled. “Clay and Monstrox- they must be trying to finish whatever they're doing before they get the rest of the powers- We need to get Merlok back.”

“Aaron,” Macy warned. “First, you need to make sense.”

He took a breath and tried again.

“Clay’s turning to stone. We need to find a way to lift the spell before- before whatever Monstrox has planned.”

Jestro stared into space, sitting on the floor by Clay’s bunk. Grasping the brim of his hat, he pulled the fabric over his eyes as tightly as he wanted, furious. Why couldn’t his training go faster? Why did Monstrox get all the easy spells? He’d never felt so helpless. So useless, not since the library exploded- not since he joined Monstrox.

Tears filled his eyes, wishing selfishly that Clay was there to curb the memories.

He pressed his spine to sit up, resting his head on the edge of the mattress. If there were really, truly happy memories after he was freed, they were hard to find. He had gone back to his old life. Trying silly things, and looking silly for it. The possibility of Ava being a mind reader was worrisome.

Why was it so important, Clay? It wasn’t worth it.

The happiest memories he could access were in the forest. Ignorant fun, laughing with the lava monsters at the victims of the last attack. Or lingering around a campfire, or climbing through trees with friends as troublesome as him.

Jestro sat upright, tears evaporating. 

He skidded into the main room. “Can I use the map, Ava?” he asked so suddenly that she almost showed a look of surprise.

She shrugged, kicking off of her seat to get a glass of water. “Sure. Let me know if there are any massive signals of sudden cold, heat, earthquakes, or alchemy."

“You got it.”

Chapter Text

The Fortex cruised quickly to beat the dusk.

“So, why exactly can’t you tell us where we’re going?” Lance asked.

“Cause you’d talk me out of it.”

“Huh?”

“Smoke on the horizon,” Ava reported from her chair. “For everyone’s safety, I have to stop the Fortrex.”

“That’s fine,” Jestro replied. “It means we're here.”

The knights exchanged puzzled glances but followed. Their suspicion only increased as he smiled, walking up to a sudden wall of fire in the middle of an otherwise abandoned plane.

The heat intensified as they grew closer. Even Macy had to shield her eyes from the smoke as Jestro tried to look past the flames. Lance stopped first so the smoke wouldn’t cling to his clothes; Axl followed his example where the grass burned away. Macy ventured with Aaron and Jestro for curiosity, but Aaron was just a few steps bolder. Only Jestro walked right to the edge of the flames.

“Hey, guys!” he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. “You home?”

Aaron opened his mouth, nearly swallowing sparks, to ask what in the name of Knightonia was going on. He was interrupted by a familiar red, scaly face sticking out of the flames.

“Oh no,” Whiperella deadpanned.

“So this is your new place! It’s good to see you,” Jestro said.

The naga spared a smile. “Excellent to see you too.” She gestured sternly at Aaron and the rest. “But did you have to bring all of them?!”

Jestro smiled and shrugged apologetically, perhaps to both parties. “How have you been since… uh, I went good?”

Whiperella’s face lightened, even as ash gathered under her chin. “Better, actually,” she drawled. “We… Well, you’ll have to come and see. I take it you didn’t come just to chat.”

“I would’ve, but I’ve been on probation.”

“Fair enough.”

Jestro gestured the knights forward, who were exchanging rapid-fire looks that nearly materialized in question marks popping up over their heads. Whiperella spread her tail over the flame, briefly smothering it.

“Thanks!” Jestro chirped, stepping carefully over.

Aaron gave a finger gun to say the same. Whiperella narrowed her eyes at him.

“Uh, hi!” Macy offered. Axl and Lance followed quietly.

Whiperella pulled back her tail and slithered back to the head of the group. “Where’s the other one?”

“That’s sort of what we came to talk about,” Jestro replied.

She frowned thoughtfully. “Your timing is good at least. We’re convening for a town meeting within the hour.”

“Town meeting?” Macy mumbled. She wasn't sure if she liked the sound of that.

The magma monsters stuck to their addressing schedule as long as they could manage. But though they were much more orderly than the knights remembered, the difference was only so stark.

Aaron stepped up to explain the abridged story of Monstrox’s return, Lance filling in some woeful details.

“And… you want our help?” General- rather, Mayor Magmar asked. He folded his arms with equal disbelief and insult.

“Monstrox didn’t care about us when we were his army, why would he look out for us if he wins now?” Jestro asked urgently, throwing out his hands.

“Take a breather, Mr. Comedian,” Lavaria drawled from where she sat. “We haven’t said no yet.” She shot him a wink, to which Jestro blushed and Macy rolled her eyes.

“Well, I am,” Sparkks the giant huffed. “We had a pretty good thing going before Jestro went good! Er, I mean, pretty bad thing before Jestro went- backwards…?”

A number of monsters mumbled in agreement, and Aaron had to consider they might leave with worse than disappointment.

Lavaria sighed nostalgically. “We did have a pretty good-bad thing going. But hey, if not for the blue knight and his friends, we wouldn’t have Burningham.”

Stronger mutterings of agreement.

The Beast Master scooted over to Jestro’s side. “They are good friends, yes?” he asked, ticking his head toward the knights. “We have an igneous hut saved if you change your mind…”

Jestro blinked in surprise. “For me?” A teary smile stretched over his face. “You shouldn’t’ve, really. They’re very good friends.” Jestro stood up again. “But you guys are my friends too! Good enough that I wish I could’ve been a proper friend without even being the bad guy!”

The strongest mutters of agreement and flattery rose up this time. Lavaria smiled, resting her chin in her hands.

Jestro gestured to the knights. “I know everyone hasn’t really gotten the chance to know each other, but you have more in common than you think! Magmar, Axl, I’d be hard-pressed to choose a more talented cook!”

Both looked at each other, immediately surprised, then squinted as each had to see it for himself.

“I suppose we could get off on a better foot,” Lavaria gestured to Macy, grinning experimentally. “We've both just been looking out for our brothers.”

Macy smiled in suprise. As Jestro and Aaron debated with Whiparella and Magmar, she was filled in on how Burningham had formed among unclaimed land.

Lance, meanwhile, glanced under his seat as Hameletta gave an oink. Beast Master, also under the bench, clapped his hands happily as his globlins pranced excitedly with the pig.

“Perhaps you’re right about Monstrox’s limits,” Whiperella said. “But that doesn't mean I wish to team up.” Her eyes narrowed at Aaron. “Teammates know one another’s fears.”

Aaron rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. “Well… I did avoid my dad’s shed for a few years when I was a kid.” He pointed to the scar on his brow. “Though the two weeks I spent grounded might’ve had something to do with it,” he chuckled.

Whiperella considered this for a moment, then nodded that it was good enough.

“So, what do you think? No pressure or anything,” Aaron joked, “but whatever Monstrox is planning-”

“He’ll put this place on ice!” Jestro finished for him.

Whiperella sighed. “I’m afraid you’re right.”

“He was rather a knave, when I consider it,” Magmar agreed.

“Besides, it was fun to impersonate these guys that one time,” Moltor chuckled from his seat. Sparkks and the others snickered, elbowing each other.

“If we are in agreement,” Magmar announced, extending a hand professionally, “the citizens of Burningham will assist you in battle.”

Aaron grinned and pulled on a glove to return the gesture. “Glad to bury the hatchet, No-Whip-Latte,” he winked to the naga.

“That is not my name!” Whiperella boomed.

“Very well!” Mayor Magmar announced quickly. “On behalf of, and in agreement with the citizens of Burningham, we shall regain touch with our monstrous roots- in battle against Monstrox!”

The monsters half-roared, half-cheered uncertainly. Privately, Lavaria pumped her fist in celebration.

The timing of the agreement couldn't have been much better. Monstrox shortly laid siege to the capital city's security systems with Vicious Voltage.

Jestro hovered fearfully by the Fortex. The bolts searing through the air broke everywhere, short-circuiting capitol lights and walls. Clay’s movements were direct, cold. So much like Monstrox and so little like Clay, one could’ve thought he was walking asleep. Dark blue stone was forming on his face, and one arm was immobile.

Ava’s makeshift downloads in the Triangulator hummed to life under his hand, the sword heavy and the shield thin.

He jumped when a warm rock nudged his arm. Lavaria smiled smartly, gesturing that she and her old soldiers were waiting for him.

He smiled, as grateful as he was scared.

The monsters were rusty since their glory days, but no less strong and possibly more harmonious. They met the stone monsters head-on, melting down weak joints and keeping the tougher ones busy.

Monstrox’s mouth fell agape at the sight. “Those traitors!” he exclaimed. “Didn’t I practically raise them?”

Clay didn’t comment. He shocked out the knight’s shields one by one.

“But I can’t fight them!” Monstrox continued, quickly blubbering. “They’re- they’re like my kids!”

“Technically, you’re not fighting them,” Clay muttered.

Whiperella slithered up to a tree just outside the metal perimeter. Curling her tail around the trunk, she locked a target down on the knight. The sight of the stone flesh, even with Aaron’s warning, gave her a shudder.

Burnzie took a small boulder to the stomach, but it just gave the fire spewing from his mouth a greater kick.

Clay turned, the stone side of him taking a painless hit. Monstrox cried out where he had gone wrong again as the heat sent his vapor flying off.

“Master Monstrox!” Clay cried out as the necromancer disappeared for a moment in a cloud of smoke.

“Those lousy knights!” Monstrox continued, his voice forced to an almost silently high pitch. “Can’t I just pillage with my army in peace?” He soared up into the air, out of range. Alarmed, the rugals dove into the earth and materialized in front of the knights. They parried quickly, but the point-blank powers seeped past armor.

Lance shrieked, his eyes going white as he faced the Shocking Scare Rugal. Aaron fired shot after shot, losing ground on the Collapsing Crumble statute. Macy hissed between her teeth, swinging after the Relentless Rust as her sweat mixed in with its rough red smoke. Axl recoiled, then tightened his grip on his ax for all it was worth. He tackled Rot, biting past the weakness that flooded his limbs.

Whiperella watched them for a moment, the bravery they shared louder than the noise of the battle. Regathering her focus, she pulled herself backward. With a nostalgic flick in her wrists, the briar whips turned outward. She flung herself from behind the stone mobile.

The shorter croney she didn’t recognize yelped and ducked. She flicked her arms like a cobra's head. Two slashes landed against the knight’s skin before he could turn. Whiperella skidded to a stop on the other side of the platform

The knight turned with the stone side of his face toward her, emotionless. Her mouth went dry when he turned completely.

Out of practice as Whiperella was, a double hit of her whips should send even the boldest knight into a vivid hallucination of whatever he feared most. But the knight drew his staff without so much as a gasp.

Whiperella yanked the whips back, snagging around the staff. She certainly should’ve been able to rip it from his grip, but Clay tilted the staff slightly toward her. The force of the voltage forced her off the Black Knight.

On the main field, the stone grunts were all but frozen. Monstrox, his cloud barely the whisp of a kettle, shouted in a brittle voice, “Rugals, retreat!” The stone heads didn’t hear, so he dove down to the field.

He steered accidentally into Macy and Lavaria. Between the rust on Macy’s face and Lavaria’s hood down, he had to look twice to tell which one was which.

“Lavaria!” he exclaimed once he found her. “You- You were my best spy! And now you’re with them?! I mean, I know you had a thing for the jester, but I’ve got a better commander now-” He didn’t finish before the two women raised a fist in tandem. Macy swung her mace square and clear through the mist. Lavaria’s shoot of fire curled around it and smeared the white cloud off the air. A spark of red like the cloud’s eyes blinked and flew off with the now-retreating monsters.

“Jerk,” Macy spat spitefully, her knuckles itching for the lack of recoil.

Lavaria nodded in agreement, leaning her elbow on the princess’s shoulder as they caught their breath.

Aaron turned to check with Whiperella and Magmar. He found them conversing where the monsters had run off. Whiperella shakily picked up her whips, which had been tossed in the Black Knight’s wake.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, reading their faces. “Clay hasn’t already turned to stone, has he?”

Magmar faced him apologetically. “We have… come to believe this war, while it might come to affect our town of Burningham, might not be… gloves fit for our hands.”

“Does that mean you won’t help us?”

“On these grounds,” Whiperella sighed, “there’s nothing we can do.” She explained Clay’s reaction, or lack of it.

“I can’t convince you to try?”

Whiperella shook her head. “If anything, staying in battle would convince us to join the army of destruction again.”

“Point taken!”

The naga smiled wryly. “As incorrigible as it is, hold onto that fearlessness, Aaron Fox. You’ll need it.”

“I’ll try.” He couldn't resist. “-Whips-a-daisy.”

“THAT IS NOT MY NAME!”

“Might I recommend we return home, hm, fellow general?” Magmar asked quickly.

Chapter Text

Monstrox comforted himself by ordering onward to plug in the fifth Forbidden Power.

The sky darkened above the mountain as clouds of black and red swirled together. Once Monstrox regathered enough moisture, he set himself in the center. The runoff of the powers spun through the air, and suddenly he swelled, well past his original size.

Clay threw his free arm in front of Arnoldi as lightning shot out from each of the five tablets.

The side of the mountain replied. The rocks shuddered and glowed. Pieces of the border crumbled and spit sparks across the crown of the mountain.

Once it stilled, Arnoldi and Clay carefully peeked over the side.

A face lay in the broken rock, at least four times larger than the Black Knight. Dark carvings like snake eyes looked as though they could crack open with another quake. Peering further over, a mouth full of long teeth spread across the mountainside.

“This guy’s almost as old as Knighton,” Monstrox explained, as greed filled his eyes. “He powered down when I was a little younger than you. No one could keep him up. But these can,” he said, gesturing toward the stone pillars.

Clay turned around strenuously, looking with fresh eyes. It wasn’t only an old ruin; it was a crown of destruction overlooking the kingdom.

His skin ached where it met the rock, but the rapid wind cleared away the dust. He laughed as he stared over.

They would never take him back. They would destroy the kingdom before anyone got the chance.

“When you start cackling like that…” Monstrox muttered. “I just gotta join in!”

Arnoldi attempted to copy the cackling as well, a cacophonous storm stumbling over the cliffside as stray pebbles still crumbled.

The Forbidden Powers were scattered unfortunately well. For a few days, Clay hit a stride that even the knight’s old leader envied. But he could only keep up with the Black Knight for so many miles before his knees and ankles stiffened and refused to move again.

He finally accepted the ride and leaned against the balcony, shuddering with discomfort. The nerves still being taken over by the rock twitched and ached. He didn’t expect nor take comfort, but soon the Black Knight had to stop where the path grew too uneven to continue.

Monstrox turned back to him. “Stay here or follow along,” he extended. “We just have to dig up someone around here.”

Clay dragged a step forward, his head splitting as if from heat, though there was a whistling wind. “If you have a spell to keep me in your army-” he grunted, feeling stone creep down his feet, “I recommend you use it now.”

“Take a breather, will you? I told you, once you turn to stone, I can zap you again! If that doesn't work,” he gestured a puff toward the path, “we got an ace right around this ridge.”

Clay followed. His clunky footprints drifted behind even the crudely carved block soldiers. Once he reached the cave, the guards parted to let him through. The harpies had already scratched off layers of solidified mud and vines.

“Another statue?” he asked groggily. “Did Arnoldi…?”

“Nah, it’s much older than both of you. Not to mention it looks half decent,” Monstrox chuckled.

Clay didn’t reply.

“Ah, you’re no fun.” 

The statue was of a woman, wielding a staff with a spiked disk in front of her. Her hair was a wild net of interwoven streaks, lightning carved within it. She wore a long, dark sleeveless dress, cracks of age running through her torso. Her face was vaguely familiar- a villain from a history book, maybe? Teeth were bared between her cracked lips. Her eyes, no eyebrows except for rough shapes, blinked open a dark blue when Monstrox’s lightning met her forehead.

Calm immediately flowed over her. She stretched, rolling out the wrist holding the staff.

“Good to see you again, my lovely apprentice,” Monstrox greeted teasingly.

She smiled, saying all at once that it was good to be back, that the army had grown since she last saw them, and he was obviously still busy with his old tricks if the cloud form said anything.

“Clay Morrington,” Monstrox directed, “meet Ruina Stoneheart. She was a wizard in the golden days, till Merlok decided she had gotten too good at her art.”

“How selfish of him,” Clay said without even thinking. Inexplicably, he tightened his fists when Ruina looked at him. Something about her wide, crooked smile was cleverer and harsher than the cloud between them.

“Clay,” she repeated, taking him in. Her eyes fell on the scabbard which hadn’t left his waist, it’s metal taking on the stone spell as well. “You're a knight?”

“I was,” Clay said, his neck too stiff to nod.

“He’s not half bad at being bad with a little encouragement,” said Monstrox, grinning proudly.

Ruina grinned back, folding her hands in front of her. “How lucky,” she remarked. “We’re sure to take Knighton now.”

“Ah? And why’s that?” Monstrox asked, sounding like he missed the word games.

Lightning split from her face, standing her hair on end. Sparks swelled down her arm and into her staff. Clay wanted to cover his ears as her voice viciously distorted. “Because I’m the most evil thing in this kingdom!” She grinned right at him. "You have so much to learn."

They departed the ruin, into Rockwood forest. “How long have I been out?” Ruina asked. 

“Uh... Maybe ten, fifteen years?”

She paused, taking it in. “Tell me, Clay,” she asked, “have you been assisting Master Monstrox for a long time?”

He turned his eyes toward the ground; all he could easily move. “I’d rather not talk about that, Ms. Stoneheart.”

“And polite too!” she remarked. “I’ll let you fill me in, then.” She turned to Monstrox. Clay filtered out the play-by-play of Monstrox’s return and ignored the stone eyes on him.

Ruina attempted to ask more questions. About his choice of weapon, his role in the current mission, and more. Clay grimaced and repeated his previous statement. “Sorry,” he mumbled, gritting his teeth against a headache. “This stone body…”

She nodded rather kindly. “I recall even my quick transformation being painful. Don’t worry. I can make sure you retain your identity after Master Monstrox’s spell.” She explained that it could only be done once the transformation was complete.

Clay’s eyes fell in something like a nod, his throat aching.

Finally, night fell and they settled into an uneven space. Arnoldi slept among his carved creations. Clay wasn’t sure he could stop the trudge after moving for so long. He moved dizzily for a tree to sit against when the ground slipped from below his heel. He tumbled down the loose path, landing with a carving from where his back scraped against the rocks. His head spun, but he felt no pain.

“Ouch, that’ll do it,” Monstrox grimaced from above. He directed Ruina and the others to just give him a minute.

A forced breath tore through Clay’s lungs, meaning to mumble out something. His vision began to fog. Was it the mineral in his eyes or the lack of air? Hard to tell.

He let himself sink against the rocks. Despite Ruina's promise, his heart pounded desperately against the rock cage. Would his mind be as empty as a growling gargoyle? Maybe it would be a relief, but his pulse didn't act like it.

This wasn’t how he imagined he might end. Battling valiantly for the kingdom, more likely. Smiling at a family or students with a softer sort of roughness in his hands.

Pulling in one more breath- if it could be called a breath- he missed home.

But it’s not home, is it? was the last he heard before his throat solidified in one piece.

He remembered no quiet or dark. There was no pain in his head or pressure in his lungs. His eyes opened in a yellow screen to Ruina lifting her hand from his forehead. He was standing as if ready for battle.

“Welcome back, Grey Knight,” she smiled simply.

Looking down at his hands, they were still dark gray, certainly still stone. On command, they clasped open and shut. “Good to be back,” he replied, monotone, surprised, in thanks.

He looked up. They were standing outside Knighton’s main town for glass production.

“We've been thinking we could accessorize the army a bit,” Ruina explained with her false sweetness. She extended a tablet with a carving of a shattering sword. He took it.

Chapter Text

“Da-ad,” Macy groaned good-naturedly as the king smothered her face in kisses.

“Oh, when did we last have lunch as a family?” he asked delightedly. “Naturally, I wouldn’t prefer it on Ye New Royal RV, but family time is family time!”

Macy gasped for air under her mother’s muscle-bound hug. “It is,” she squeaked before being released, then laughed, as the queen subtly and mercifully loosened the ribbon on her collar. “It is.” The quiet lake outside was a slightly neglected, yet nostalgic Halbert spot from when she was a kid. Save for showing Clay the place last Christmas, hardly anyone knew about it. Between that and memories of skating with her grandfather, the net effect was comforting.

She dismissed the spirebots. The RV was small enough, and today she preferred to set the table herself. The king and queen sat down to catch up on everything. Macy’s mouth had just opened when the ground shook. She dropped the plates and rushed to a window.

“Come on, now?!” the redhead exclaimed. She whipped around to her parents. “Monsters!” She reached for her mace and realized with horror that she had left it at the Fortrex, to avoid the same conversation they had every other visit.

Something heavy enough to nearly tilt the RV off its wheels crashed against the wall. King Halbert ran out to the patio with the other two and tried to halt before Macy tripped over her skirt and fell over him. Both tumbled a few meters into the pool below. Just then, the wall holding the dining room crashed open. The settling dust unveiled a long, grey vehicle with spikes, chains, and a cackling stone woman steering it.

“Mom!” Macy exclaimed. Blinking the water from her eyes, she saw the queen dangling from the balcony.

Hama kicked the dust from her dress and grasped her hammer from under the deck. “Stay there, sweethearts!” she called out, winding up her hammer with a confident grin. “When haven’t I protected you from these guys?”

Macy and her father exchanged glances and quickly began to swim to shore, water dragging down their coats. Ruina let one hand off the wheel to fire bursts of light after the queen. She flipped over the balcony and ducked fluidly.

The wizard grinned approvingly, though it turned to disdain. She stepped down to the front and shot a wider light, snagging the queen mid-air in a dark purple cloud. A familiar, stone suit of armor took over the controls.

Before Macy could sink, she watched the cruiser turn, bringing a small cage suspended by a chain crashing into the queen. The hammer knocked from her hand. Once she hit the inside wall, the door swung shut and the spell dispersed. Ruina nodded to the back of the vehicle concealed by the RV.

“What a minute,” the queen gasped, looking at Ruina with her fists clasped over the bars. “I remember you! You’re-”

Ruina sent one last blast at Ye New RV and switched to the front. Macy finally pulled herself out of the water and grasped her father’s petrified hand.

“Hama!” he cried after her.

“Mom!” Macy shouted at the same time.

The queen looked back at them fearfully as the car sped away.

Clay glanced briefly back as he walked to join Ruina on the other side. He watched Macy run to try to start the RV, but the crushed engine hissed in protest. They had a greater head start than he realized.

The windows were open and most lights were off as Ava worked at the wires of the main frame. Only the emergency communicator stayed on, just in time for Macy’s destroyed signal to run in the Fortrex. Aaron dropped his copy of the Knight’s Code, drawing what he could between Macy’s alarm and her father’s hysterics.

“Hold on, your highnesses! Axl, Lance, get your vehicles! They’ll be faster.”

“But I’m so close!” Ava exclaimed, gesturing wildly at her screen. She scooped up her computer and Robin took a giant hard drive. “The signal was far enough from the palace- Someone can drop me off at Merlok’s library so I can make sure his code is right before I test the Fortex frame!”

“Jestro, you can use Clay’s car,” Aaron directed. “Get Robin and Ava to the library, then meet up with us!”

Axl threw open the door. Ava contained her sharp remarks as Robin threw the hard drive into the backseat. Jestro grasped the controls, granting himself one last look at the Fortex.

“Guys?” he asked. “How do I turn this on?”

“Blue button,” Ava answered dryly behind her armful of tech.

“The lever a few inches to the right shoots projectiles,” Robin added. “I just installed it recently. Not loaded yet,” he added to Ava’s look.

Jestro flicked on the button and slammed the gas down. The narrow wheels sent a ring through the garage, then shot off.

Queen Halbert held onto opposite bars to keep from being thrown by bumps in the road. Ruina talked with Clay. She could decode a bit under the rumble of the car. It seemed improbable, more likely the memory of one of many wizard friends was mixed up. She was inclined to trust her eyes, but didn’t have much time to work out the details before she caught the former blue knight point ahead at an incoming cleft in the cliffs.

“That will work fine.”

Ruina nodded approvingly.

The queen tightened her grip. She had already girded her gown. Steadying her breath, she stretched to her full height and tried to reach around the roof of the cage. Not working, she shifted her weight against the bars. The chain swung, slightly spinning. Tilting back and forth, she swung steadily higher. Reaching up, her finger scathed the bar connecting her to the cart. On the next swing, she grabbed it. Her fingers nearly slackened with the satin strangling her arms. Still holding the cage up, she snagged the sleeve in her teeth. With a healthy tear, she flexed and pulled the cage as tightly sideways as she could manage.

Three… two… she counted to herself as they drove into the ravine.

She let go. The cage swung back the other way and contacted the corner of the cliffs. A crack ran through the stone. Grasping the bars, she lifted herself and gave the floor a hard kick. Just before the brakes screeched, she let go and hit the ground with a slight stumble. She ran.

The Grey Knight turned sharply to the sound. “Ruina!” he shouted for her. She had already sent a spell over the towering rocks. Pieces tumbled to the ground, forcing Hama to step back. She shot a glare at the two, then all the faster hitched up her dress and scrambled up the rocks. They quickly tumbled, nearly crushing her feet. Darting for another exit and finding none, the queen grabbed a rock and held her ground.

“Well,” the wizard said evenly. She looked at Clay. “What will you do?”

His lips pressed unevenly. “We need her for leverage.”

“They’ll come anyway.”

“I know!” he snapped. “I know.” His eyes opened bright yellow and he stepped toward the queen. “Your highness,” he said evenly. All at once it was a warning, a threat, a goodbye. He drew his sword.

“You must not remember,” the queen remarked, “I was a knight too!” She raised the rock over her head and sent the sword to the ground. With her hands free, she tore up the rocks and made it over this time. The knight burst through after her.

Hama ran. When Ruina’s vehicle started, she maneuvered through small corners in the ravine. When Clay attacked on foot, she pulled the first rock she could land her hands on and threw it.

The dance went on until the intricate patterns in Hama’s skirt were no more. Her breath was pressed with enough pressure for a diamond to form between her lungs. Every muscle ached and her hands were covered in scratches. She was nearly getting worried when the hanging sun flashed over a familiar, red birthday gift.

Macy and the horse-like Hotspur leaped over a small cliff. “Leave her alone!”

Aaron seconded on the Bow Flier, then Lance appeared on a mech with wheels and Axl in a small tank.

“Blast, princess,” the Grey Knight snapped, turning his sword toward her. “I’m trying to pick my battles, but you're making it difficult.”

Aaron kept Ruina busy, snatching at parts of the Cruiser, while Axl began bumping off the wheels. Lance circled around in search of soldiers. Finding none, he skated up to the queen and extended a giant metal hand. She grabbed hold as Macy dove to meet the Grey Knight.

With a crash, the nose of the Hotspur hit and held against the knight’s shield. “WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU?!” she shouted.

She met his eyes. Terror jolted through her so quickly she wasn’t sure where it came from. With a swing from the stone sword, the Hotspur was thrown to the side.

Once confirming the queen was alright, Aaron shouted for a retreat.

The Grey Knight parried off the mountainside to try to cut Hama from Lance’s hold, but was overturned with a kick from the Hotspur as Lance spun out of the way.

The knights ran off the way they came, this time with Macy at the end of the line. Clay glared after them, a scream burning his throat.

“Ruina!” he exclaimed in her direction. He gestured to clear the rocks with a spell.

“I can only do so much in one day.” She jumped from the scrambled Cruiser and set a hand on his shoulder. She smiled to see the yellow return to his eyes. “We did plenty. Monstrox should be expecting us to return by now.”

“I should’ve been able to dispatch them,” he hissed, as he walked with her.

“You will be able,” Ruina assured. Clay looked back, wondering if he saw something soft, strange in her gaze. “Able for more than you ever suspected.”

“Zounds and sounds abound!” Merlok exclaimed as his hologram flickered to life.

“Merlok!” Robin cheered.

“You’re back!” Jestro added with delight.

The wizard smiled at them and quickly looked around for Ava. “How long have I been shut down?”

“Seven weeks, two days, fifteen hours,” she explained, walking back from her setup of computers. “Me. I'm counting.”

Merlok took in the hard drive and library. “That explains the life flashing before my eyes for the last few minutes,” he murmured to himself. “Seven weeks,” he repeated, shaking the bugs from his staff. “We may still have time.”

“Time for what?” Robin asked.

“Not a what,” the wizard remarked. “A who.”

It was then Ava’s tablet flashed red. Eyes magnetized toward the screen and widened between horror and annoyance as the cameras inside the Fortex short-circuited; just before they caught a cackling cloud and several soldiers violently overturn loose furniture in the Fortex.

“Fear not, we’re insured,” said Merlok.

Ava grumbled wordlessly. “Assuming it still works,” she sighed, though her relief was evident, “all I have left to do is finalize a test connection back to the Fortex.”

“How come I never got to see inside here?” Robin asked incredulously, eyes huge to soak in the library’s sleek elevators, high-tech artifact vaults, and intricate working desks.

“There’s more than one item that needs special training to be handled,” the wizard chuckled. “Although… hm.” He tapped his staff thoughtfully to his chin.

Robin shook himself out of his daze to help Ava. As they set up the screens, Merlok turned to Jestro.

“Er… the last flash of insight I got, there was a red alert,” he remarked. “Jestro, have you been prepared for battle?”

Jestro nodded. But the wizard wasn’t surprised when he sat down, avoiding eye contact with any of the rebuilt library. “They’ll be through by the time I find them. I might as well stick around.”

The wizard conceded someone would need to drive Robin and Ava back to the Fortex. He scrolled casually through the code history, filling himself in on what he’d missed.

Jestro stared at the floor, clutching the chair and kicking his feet as if he were awaiting Principal Brickland’s office.

“Merlok?” he finally spoke up.

“Hm?”

“All the knights… they have their role in the team, right?”

The wizard nodded.

“And I’ve been one of them since Clay got hit.”

“That's what I've gathered.”

“Then… what’s my purpose supposed to be?”

“Ah!” Merlok brightened. He thought it would be a hard question for what felt like early in the morning. “Your friendship, for starters. Supporting the team while we’re without Clay. And in a few minutes, someone needs to remind Ava to write to her mother, as I’m sure she’s been muting me-” He stopped, realizing Jestro’s lips were tightly pressed.

“I mean, what am I supposed to do to get Clay back?”

The wizard’s shocked pause seemed to answer for him.

“Let’s face it, we can’t reach Clay from this side.”

Merlok leaned down. “Have you been considering something else, my boy?”

He quieted. “Do you know what it feels like to feel responsible for someone? For someone something like that happened to?”

Merlok paused again, then nodded, but too softly for Jestro to notice.

Jestro glanced back at the two kids. He dropped his voice to a whisper but spoke more firmly. “There’s something I have to do. And… There’s something I want to try.”

Chapter Text

Macy intended to escort her mom home, but changed her mind when she saw the Fortrex. The whole team froze for a moment, building up another dose of resolve. They split up to salvage what they could and clean out the rest. Thankfully, Monstrox didn’t know what he was looking at with Merlok’s half-assembled system, more interested with breaking open the weapon’s case, so it remained completable.

Macy worked as fast as any of them, perhaps faster. When Aaron tried to interject, she simply insisted he give himself a break after such a successful rescue mission. He eventually obliged. Ava and Robin nodded off during dinner break, so Axl made sure they got to bed with the others.

“Save the rest for tomorrow, Macy!” Lance called over his shoulder, heading to wash the product from his hair.

“I will,” she monotoned from the round table where she was scribbling a list of needed replacements.

Jestro checked out the window for last-minute harpies and started to clean the rest of the table so it could be found the next morning without dropping someone into gloom.

Macy looked over and gestured she could take care of it before she went to bed.

“You sure?”

She nodded.

Something blocked the door. He sat down, not yet tired enough to earn a pass. “Can I ask… a maybe weird question?”

Another nod.

“We’re friends, right?”

“What makes you ask that?”

He shrugged uncomfortably. “We just haven't really been around each other that much since I was freed from Monstrox’s spell. And it’s been weird since I’ve been staying in the Fortrex.”

The redhead shrugged in agreement.

“But… you’re okay I’m on the team, right?’

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not like we asked for this.” Her gaze fell to the floor, the blue sword resting over her mace. “You know, at the knight’s academy, it didn’t even matter that I was a princess or that Clay was homeless. We trained together every day to protect the kingdom. I was finally a little happy as the princess, if only for how much he loved Knighton.”

Jestro rubbed his eyes. “I’m a little luckier than you, huh? Between Principle Brickland and Merlok, I could go in between school and the castle pretty much whenever I wanted.”

She chuckled tiredly. “I always said that the palace was too big. Funny I never properly met you guys before the academy.”

Jestro shrugged. “You were at home.”

“Eventually,” she muttered, then paused. “Were you?”

“I-” Jestro froze. “I mean, Principle Brickland took me in, and I love him for that.” He sighed, head sinking over his hands. “But I guess I never really felt what Clay did for Knighton. I mean, except for the carnival weekends with you guys. That felt like home.”

Macy smiled sadly. “Maybe we should reserve next Saturday. Let me call Monstrox, no battling for the weekend, I'm sure we could arrange something.”

A hearty laugh burst loose from him. The queen’s kidnapping had sure torn down his nerves, he wouldn’t mind learning how Macy did it. “Right! You never get guaranteed weekends! I’ve never known how you guys do this!”

Macy stared at the table, burying a slight smile in her hands.

“So, um,” Jestro ventured to continue, “I bring this all up because- there’s something I’ve been thinking about. A way to keep tabs on Monstrox’s movements and figure out what he did to Clay.” He explained the plan, including a connection with the King’s best spy to send reports from whatever distance was necessary.

Macy’s eyes widened, but her thoughts remained invisible.

Jestro laughed nervously. “Think it could work?”

“Well…” she sighed. “We’ve been doing a splendid job lately, haven't we?”

“Is that a yes?”

“From me?” she asked, rising. “No. It doesn't sound like a good idea at all.”

Jestro grimaced. Macy continued.

“Clay can survive this, I’m trusting that.” She looked down at him, a strange mixture of compassion and anger that he had never seen from the battlefield. “But can you?”

Chapter Text

Monstrox just wanted to enjoy a night of well-deserved rest, but snorted awake before the sun breached the horizon.

Figures I’d zap the one that woke up before the birds, he grumbled to himself. There was no chance of going back to sleep before he put a stop to that rhythmic crack.

“What’s the racket?” Monstrox complained, following the noise into the open.

The Grey Knight didn’t turn from where he faced the horizon. “Just a curiosity.” The knight tossed his sword into the air and caught it- blade first- in his hand.

“I don’t feel anything,” he explained. He turned back, staring Monstrox in the face. “It was the same thing when he fought the Magma Monsters. I don’t feel anything.”

Monstrox raised an eyebrow, thinking. “Yeah, makes sense. Speaking of,” he invited, settling just above the knight’s height, “give me some feedback on the fighting. You have a little trouble with the big guy…?”

“Axl. He’s the strongest of the knights.”

So you remember their names…

“I admit I had troublesome expectations going into battle.” Clay tossed the sword again, this time grasping the handle. “But I didn’t feel anything.”

Monstrox hovered silently. The Grey Knight was sharper than Jestro, that was for sure. It was useful to have a loyal servant who could think, but they always had an expiration date on their usefulness.

“Talk with Ruina if you need some fine-tuning,” he permitted. “Meantime, let’s find the next Forbidden power!”

Clay nodded and shouted for the rest of the soldiers to get moving.

That afternoon, Clay stood up from his post, inspecting the stone sword from Arnoldi. The handle was already more scratched from his bare hands. That wasn’t right. The blade was supposed to scratch first.

He shelved that thought, however, as a figure over the next hill caught his eye. Its pace was uneven, nearly running to catch up with them. “Master Monstrox!” Clay called out over his shoulder.

The cloud turned curiously and followed Clay’s pointer finger.

Jestro clutched a stitch in his side, catching his breath once the Black Knight stopped. He gave a short wave, adjusting a scrappy red and purple cap.

Monstrox burst out laughing. “What did you do?”

“No ‘How’ve you been?” Jestro asked. “Cause how have you been? It’s not quite as aesthetic as Everdark forest out here.”

“How’d you even find us?”

“I was friends with Lavaria, remember?” Jestro winked. Then he stuck a thumb back at the foot-wide tracks pressed into the dirt.

“Okay, I walked into that one. But again- What did you do?”

“Does it matter?” His eyes darkened. “You wanted me to be bad again. I’m bad again.”

Jestro suspended the breath in his chest, wishing against wish that Monstrox would laugh again and brush him off. Instead, he floated closer down, studying his face. Jestro swallowed. They had been on separate teams for a while, but not much longer than the time Monstrox got to memorize mannerisms, tells…

Then, the cloud parted in two. Monstrox rose and glared down in shock at who dared walk through his gaseous form, but Clay simply reached out his hand.

Jestro took it. His skin was harder, but the shape of his grip was the same.

“Good to have us on the same team again, Jestro.”

Jestro sheepishly tugged the back of his hat, double-checking the communicator was hidden. “Good to be on the same team again.”

“Well alright!” Monstrox cheered, crackling electricity in celebration.

In the shadows of the Black Knight, a stone woman cleared her throat. She smilingly introduced herself as Ruina and extended her hand to shake. Jestro just gave a small wave.

“He’s on the soft side,” Monstrox explained teasingly.

“No, no, I understand completely,” she replied with a sweeping smile.

Jestro glanced over at Clay, who had appeared at his side. The knight gestured at the wizard as if to request an agreement that she was off. He just shrugged back.

Not all the monsters were pleased to take on another general, but complaints were short and clever. Not unlike the lava troop, really. As afternoon turned to evening, the air was more comfortable than the seats. Jestro stitched up answers to Monstrox’s questions, filling in the holes with jokes and remarks. It wasn’t easy to access Clay’s eyes (stone and moving- gave him the creeps). Jestro groaned to learn the stone monsters were even worse than the Lava Monsters at finding human food. But other than that… there was nothing he didn’t recognize.

Jestro released a careful sigh once they settled down for the night. He settled awkwardly among some grass, resigning himself to stone beds all over again.

He reached for the communicator, debating whether he could fold up his hat as a pillow, but stopped himself as a familiar set of footsteps jolted the tiredness from his head.

“Clay!” Jestro stood up quickly, unsettled by the anger on his face.

The knight walked right up to him, his hands in fists. He uncurled them suddenly, like baring claws. “Are you kidding me?” the knight growled.

He put on a cold tone, expecting another interrogation. “Wh-what?”

Clay stepped well into the jester’s space until he was glaring only a few inches from his nose. “You came back? I took the spell and you came back anyway?!”

“What?” Jestro exclaimed, truly shocked this time.

He jumped as Clay’s fist turned into a blur. When he blinked, he saw the knight with his eyes screwed angrily shut, the base of his fist pressed against his forehead.

Jestro was frozen, startled, confused, but the heat disappeared from the knight’s face like it was thrown on ice. “Glad to have us back on the same team,” he repeated dryly. “Good night.”

“Y-yeah,” Jestro mumbled, his heart pounding. “‘Night.”

A grimace remained carved on Clay’s face as he dug into his own quarter. It only made sense, really. His home was endangered, so Jestro came back where his own life would be guaranteed.

Part of him was relieved. No more fussing about whether he could go back. The point of no return had arrived behind his back, leaving a clear path to the finish line. He hardly needed sleep that night, eager to get on with it, but laid back for the rest of the camp’s sake.

He cursed the dull ache inside his chest, adjusting to the stone body.

Chapter Text

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead?” Jestro asked experimentally. Clay’s eyes opened without a trace of rest in them.

Jestro quickly looked toward the sun to be sure. “Wow,” he remarked. “I haven’t known you to sleep in since we were both plucked off the streets like kittens!”

“What are you insinuating?” Clay asked coldly, not moving as if he intended to go back to sleep.

“That you’ve just not as tough as this stone insinuates.” Jestro kicked him lightly in the ribs like Aaron used to do mornings at the knight’s academy. He then recoiled, holding his toe which was already bruised in his old cloth shoes.

Clay sat up, rubbing his eyes while Jestro hobbled. “I suppose the spell tires me out quickly.”

“Funny,” Jestro remarked. He shook the pain from his foot and tried again. “Being with the baddies makes me feel pretty alive!”

Clay rose, brushing the dust off him. Stone against stone made a grating, scratching sound.

“That’s Monstrox’s spell, right?” Jestro asked, not actually needing an answer. “Is that even comfortable?”

“Master Monstrox needs it. It doesn't need to be comfortable.”

Jestro hid a grimace and tugged the back of his hat.

Jestro quickly realized with dismay that the stone monsters weren’t as easy to talk with as the lava monsters. The Harpies held their own (probably telepathic) conversations. The gnomes didn’t talk at all, and he was pretty sure the gargoyles were hard of hearing. It was info he could report back, but not much of a consolation.

Mischief sparked in his eyes as Clay, watching the path unblinkingly, gave a short sigh, almost like he was bored.

“Hey,” Jestro whispered.

Clay glanced over.

“If we recruited those old Tighty Knighties, would we be…” he paused for effect, “Pop Rocks?”

Clay’s eyes turned back to the road. Ruina just looked at him strangely.

“Tough crowd,” Jestro chuckled uncomfortably.

“I don’t think I could put up with that so-called music, anyway,” Monstrox remarked, eavesdropping.

“Weren’t they trying to make a video in Everdark forest the day Whiperella joined?” Jestro rebounded. “Now that was a nightmare!”

The necromancer and jester continued back and forth like that for a while.

“He was with Monstrox before you?” Ruina whispered to Clay.

“If you can believe it,” Clay whispered back.

A few hours later (Jestro sure didn’t miss riding along the bumpy road like he was an order of potatoes), they tracked down the power of Metalmorphosis among a cave of stone soldiers. A cool name, he couldn’t lie. After a bit of haggling (the land was owned by Jorah Tightwad), the new soldiers began digging.

Was it worth the risk to sabotage the so soon, he wondered. They plowed through stone and dirt pretty easily. He was leaning against it when he jumped at what felt like a small electric shock to his shoulder. He whipped around to give Monstrox a piece of it but choked on his words. It was Ruina; she tapped his shoulder to advise him to help dig.

“Generals don’t do the digging!” Monstrox interrupted from atop the Black Knight. “Leave him alone.”

“Yeah!” Jestro stammered quickly. “I didn’t turn traitor to dig dirty holes!”

Ruina raised her hands in mock surrender and Jestro left it at that. Nonetheless, he might have preferred having something to do. That would've distracted him from scratching his brain restlessly, searching for something that felt slippery. There was nothing, but that didn’t help him shake the feeling that a snake had been planted right down his neck.

Morning was turning to afternoon when Clay took a break to walk at the army’s flank. Jestro followed, continuing the story he was telling.

“So the guy stands up in his seat and- just losing it- shouts, ‘Don’t you know what this means? We lose that last engine- and we’ll be up here all day!”

An uncertain smile waited for the go-ahead. Was it a miracle?; Clay chuckled.

The knight wiped his eyes tiredly, before realizing that wouldn't do the dust in them any favors. Blinking, they opened like their natural brown with just a hint of gray- Again, probably the dust. “That’s just ridiculous,” he snickered.

“Pst! Look alive! Or- dead!” Monstrox suddenly gestured for Arnoldi to stop the Black Knight. The mobile and soldiers took a knee, appearing like slightly odd rocks.

The two ducked behind the mobile. Clay crawled to the top for a better view. Several meters across the meadow, a young girl had apparently wandered while digging through the dirt for berries and maybe nice rocks.

“She shouldn't notice us if we’re patient,” Ruina advised in a hush.

“We’re already on a detour!” Monstrox hissed back. He sent a spark off the knight’s shoulder.

His eyes pierced yellow as if with surprise but quickly stood up. The Grey Knight bounded over the mobile. The girl was enraptured by her work and hardly noticed the rock among many until he was right behind her with a sword.

Her eyes turned a few critical degrees to the sound and she jumped up with a scream. The scoop of dirt in her hands scattered in the breeze; she ran before Clay had to do anything.

A short chuckle to the small shriek and tiny, fleeing footsteps plucked Jestro’s mouth. He bit it down in time to glare at Monstrox.

“What d'ya have to do that for?” he exclaimed. “We had it under control!”

“This whole kingdom is going to be dust and smoke in less than a month,” Monstrox deadpanned. “If you can’t sit through the previews, don’t watch the movie!”

“But what did you need to do that to Clay for?!” he continued, only getting madder. “Aren't we supposed to be a team?”

The necromancer was slightly taken aback. It was just weird seeing the jester mad.

Clay returned to earshot. “Let it go,” he advised dryly.

Jestro whipped his head to argue but found his mouth empty. He glared once more at Monstrox, who looked back, unimpressed.

The jester sat in the back of the Black Knight, his arms folded stiffly, ignoring the discussion. The seat was so hard, it felt like it could split his spine clean in half with the wrong move; How did Clay manage to use it?

Dust covered up the incident by the next morning. The cool plains steadily heated up and they ventured into an area of the Lavalands Jestro didn’t recognize.

“Do you usually have to look this far?” Riding along reduced his risk of getting a toe smashed by one of the soldiers, but pretty soon, the muscle he’d built up would write its resignation notice.

“No, now that you mention it,” Clay muttered.

The Black Knight was too small for Monstrox not to overhear. “Long roads lead to excellent destinations. Since Jestro came back, I’ve had my eye out for a power more… fitting.”

Clay and Jestro exchanged glances.

“That stunt with the Lava Monsters really hurt my feelings, you know,” Monstrox explained.

Jestro nearly choked watching Clay walk in and out of a glowing pit not unlike the one that grew the arena. But he came out unscratched, carrying the tablet of Volcanic Vengeance. The Black Knight returned on the double to the nearest water tower.

“Will you do the honors?” Clay asked.

Jestro looked at him in surprise. He extended Monstrox’s staff.

Though the staff was cool, the heated power bubbled through the carvings and past his skin. He looked up at the tower- giant, cold, hard, just waiting. In the blink of an eye, he could turn it to steam and melted scrap. Watch it cloud over the soft ground. See the whole radius of towns dry up. Familiar, fun.

He nearly fumbled, shoving the thing back into Clay’s hands. “N-no, I insist!” He swallowed an uncomfortably dry throat. “You’re the one that got it.”

Clay's look was like a knife. “I thought so,” was all he said, before bringing down the tower himself. Jestro watched, a bit unaware of everything else, as hissing steam flooded the sky.

Chapter Text

“Is the signal good? Getting good angles?” Lance asked, studying his reflection in the hovering camera.

“Yas, yas,” the director Jurgen von Stroheim sighed. “But it's hard to find the seeds for a brilliant reality show without some action!”

Lance ducked the camera behind him as Ava burst on the wall screen. The camera caught her voice well enough.

“Big, bad magic signals coming from Diggington- And at least twenty missing person reports from last night,” she gasped out.

Axl rose quickly at the mention of his hometown.

Macy dashed from the training room. From Merlok’s control panel, the engine hummed to life.

“A hero has no time to waste!” Lance cried, stealing an angle as they picked up speed.

“Oh, that was as cheesy as Clay’s pre-battle lines,” Macy grimaced.

“We’ll fix that in post,” Lance whispered.

The town itself seemed quiet- which according to Axl, meant people were nervous. Reaching his house, he immediately picked up his little sister in a hug. The comfort was short-lived, as she reported their parents, whom the knights knew could bend iron in their teeth, were among the missing victims.

“It’s gonna be okay, Axlina,” Aaron assured the girl. “We’ve got a man on the inside to sort this whole thing out.”

Meanwhile, Jestro pressed his lips tightly shut and crept backward toward the mouth of the cave. He twisted the device closer to his ear and waited before saying anything.

“NK to J, come in J,” whispered Aaron’s voice.

“I copy,” Jestro whispered back. “Are you nearby?”

Jestro confirmed that was the right track, but nothing more before a passing Ingrid made him nervous. “J over and out,” he whispered.

He caught up to Clay who was watching over the kidnapped miners. He was back in the silent mode that made him look more like a statue and couldn’t be convinced to talk idly. The two walked around the perimeter as the cave was rearranged. Jestro might have been disturbed by how little it bothered him, but… he had to anticipate the knight’s rescue party.

Clay followed Monstrox when he called for him and then Jestro stayed behind. He folded his arms stiffly as Ruina came up around his side in the shadows. At first, she just watched over the prisoners as well. Jestro started to sweat when, in his peripheral vision, she glanced between him and Clay. More than once.

“You’ve been friends for a while, is that right?” she asked without preamble.

Jestro nodded, certain of his answer if not why she was asking.

Ruina grimaced before continuing. “Is he typically this… measured?”

“I mean, it is Clay. He’s pretty by the book,” Jestro shrugged. “But… no. Not like this, anyway.”

The wizard didn’t say anything more, merely watching.

A set of prisoners (who Jestro didn’t recognize as Axl’s parents until what happened, happened) took to stealthily bringing their pickaxes down on their manacles instead of the wall. The chains jumped and jangled, near to cracking, before a stone hand grabbed each.

“Some of these statues might be old. Work on your aim,” Clay advised coldly before shoving both pickaxes back into the wall.

“Can you get us directions to you?” asked Macy through the device.

Jestro looked left and right around the mouth of the cave. Every extra second was nerve-racking, but he couldn’t get a clear signal inside, not to mention he didn’t need to risk the echo. “Well, there’s a big rock on our left. And the right… another rock.”

“I don’t know why I thought that would work,” Macy mumbled. “But we can’t risk waiting for more people to be abducted!”

Jestro thought for a minute. “I’ll call you right back.”

A few minutes later, he did. “Okay, hear me out. Clay said they’ve first gone for people more than a shouting distance outside of town. If someone plants themselves out of Diggington with a tracker-”

“You just asked Clay how to help us find you?” Macy asked, somewhat incredulous.

“Not in so many words,” he replied. “Sheesh, just cause we're both evil doesn't mean we don’t talk.”

Macy gave a long sigh. “I might still have a cap and dress around. Tell the gargoyles to be on patrol.”

Jestro retreated back into the cave after giving the order; he wasn’t looking forward to their arrival. The lava monsters could be surprisingly cool and soft, but rock was rock; unforgiving.

“Is it that cold here?”

Clay’s voice sounded so like him, Jestro turned almost in relief. Then he met the yellow eyes, grim with suspicion, and dropped his hands behind his back. An alibi stumbled on his tongue before he realized Ruina and Monstrox were elsewhere in the cave. He dropped posture with a shake of his head.

“Clay,” he started evenly, setting an awkward hand on his shoulder without touching the staff. “The knights are coming. They could be here any minute.” He stopped, waiting for the implications to sink in.

“Thanks for letting me know,” the Grey Knight replied. Spinning the staff to make Jestro let go, he turned back to the entrance. “Let’s meet them, shall we?”

Jestro bit his lip but followed.

The cave echoed suddenly, stopping them. Monstrox was the first to reach the scene of the discovery. The prisoners gasped, torn between curiosity to look closer and fear to shrink back. Though, the manacles could’ve helped even the line.

A skull- no, a skull-like helmet with long, twisted horns peered from the rock. Even lifeless, it seemed to stare through the cavern.

“Lord Krackenskull,” Monstrox presented proudly to everyone in earshot. “Brilliant warlord in the old days! Arnoldi!” he called. “I want you to carve this one out, carefully. The rest of you, double time in this area! The crown jewel should be very, very close…”

“What’s the crown jewel?” Jestro asked.

Clay didn’t know. He turned back to guard the entrance. The two waited there for a while. Jestro tugged at his hat to dock the urge to listen in on the knights. Minutes crawled by.

His heart tightened when finally the gargoyles returned empty-handed. Had they not found the knights? Or worse?

Jestro gasped and ducked back into the cave in the split second between a warning which came through his radio and Aaron’s open fire took the gargoyles by surprise.

The Grey Knight stepped toward the entrance. Clay almost thought the archer had grown bold enough to come alone.

Then, with a rumbling on the horizon, the rest of the knights spilled over, just under a sharp eye's distance from the returning army. Clay frowned, reminding himself to brief the gargoyles; they didn’t have sharp eyes.

“Neat thing about a retreat- it can get the enemy off your back long enough to think the battle’s over!” Aaron laughed, and jumped onto Lance’s silver mech.

“Master Monstrox, Ruina!” Clay shouted behind him. His eyes flickered over Jestro, but didn’t pause. “Get the Kraken!” With that, he pulled the staff in both hands. A streak of burning, red bubbles lit up around the Forbidden Power. The air wavered with shock as it erupted in a long arc through the knights.

Volcanic Vengeance crashed off of Lance’s expanded shield. “Ha!” he boasted. “You should know mechs aren't flammable!”

Clay’s yellow eyes locked onto Aaron. “Let’s see what is.”

Aaron lept behind Lance, nearly stumbling for speed. He slipped around Macy’s Hotspur, dancing steadily closer to the mouth of the cave as Clay tried to knock him from the air.

Jestro, neither party fully acknowledging he was there, retreated deeper into the cave, if only because the smoke was hurting his eyes.

Axl managed to burst over Clay's shoulder. He withdrew further.

Clay turned around for just a moment to aim a shot at Axl’s back. He tumbled in a crash of metal. The prisoners screamed and tried to recoil, but the lava cooled in a perfect outline around its mark and stilled. While Axl tried to break the seal on his armor before it reached his skin, Clay returned to close the mouth of the cave. Aaron figured it would be no use trying to tackle Clay. Instead, laughing as the heat amped up with the stone knight’s frustration, he parried the red stream again and again with turns of his shield.

Jestro backed further into the cave and nearly ran into General Garg. A wall suddenly crumbled and dust spilled through the cavern. Monstrox cackled and fired a burst of lightning into the hole.

Breaking out on a giant, four-legged beast with a broad head and neck of stone, the granite Lord Krackenskull rose.

Lord Krackenskull blinked from the shock, brushing dust off the beast’s nose. The steed had a pentagonal stone that seemed to grow from his forehead, painted with a crystal cradled by jagged cracks. He shouted a rough, demanding something that hit all but Monstrox and Ruina with alarm and confusion.

“Ah, the ancient language of Kraken!” Monstrox remarked. “So, uh, musical.” He glanced over to his generals. “He wants to know what happened.”

Clay immediately pointed at the knights. “They mean to take and destroy your beast’s power. It’s what they came for.”

Monstrox grinned wickedly and quickly translated.

“Uh-oh,” Axl muttered before the beast reared up and crashed down on his shield. Clay stepped aside to make room for the three stone brothers, Roog, Reex, and Rumble.

“Wasn’t Rumble supposed to be the size of a small mountain?” Macy asked.

“Well, give him a break, he’s been underground for a few decades. Parts get stuck,” Aaron shrugged.

“Oi! You won’t be so clever once yer in the cement!” Rumble bellowed.

“Hey! I made those new-a threads art!” Arnoldi exclaimed.

Lance vaulted over Rumble, forcing his brothers to turn the clunky wheels around again.

“Life imitates art!” the knight shot back, grinning for the camera hidden behind his shield. He skated into the cave and thrust his lance against the chain on the wall.

Axl broke loose once Krackenbeast reared down on the rock. He grabbed Clay to keep him from firing again and dodged the Kraken with him.

Macy smashed down on the next chain link. She disarmed a gargoyle from his keys and tossed it to the prisoners. “This could get ugly!” 

Aaron taunted Roog, Reex, and Rumble by himself, just in time for Lance to ready his stance. “Merlok! Man, feels good to say that again,” he chuckled. “NEX-O KNIGHT!”

There was a rise of light, then… nothing.

Rumble spun his wheels.

“Ava, what’s going on?” Aaron asked. His shield was the only to light up on cue.

“We can only reach a signal outside the cave!”

“Double uh-oh,” Aaron realized aloud.

Jestro dove out of the way as Rumble came barreling with enough force to clip the mouth of the cave before ramming into Lance. The giant smashed into the other wall where the prisoners had been only a moment ago. Lance groaned and crawled out of the scrap. His mech’s shield went flying before Macy caught it in the tail of the Hotspur.

“Lance!” she exclaimed, throwing it back to him as she avoided the jaw of the Krackenbeast. She had just enough time to see the camera taped to the back. “Have you been recording for another reality program?!”

He laughed nervously. “It was… supposed to be candid!”

Before he could stammer to save himself, Macy’s face lit up. “Lance- this is perfect!”

“I mean, my director can be a little flight-”

“It has a wireless signal!" She snatched the drone, holding it in front of the lens in her helmet. Ava, think you can bring our download through this?”

The girl promised to try. After a moment of pebbles flying everywhere and stone meeting steel, the tiny drone spilled a flood of yellow light against the dark blue stone.

Roog and Reex finally managed to pull Rumble’s face from the wall. “Bah, let them have the liability!” Monstrox shouted. “Leave the prisoners!”

Ruina quickly passed on the message between Common and Kraken. The last of the people spilled from the cave, and Aaron painted an arrow back at the opening.

Lord Krackenskull finally emerged into the light. The grass under his beast’s feet rumbled and turned a strange, hard gray.

“We’ll call this one a draw!” Aaron declared.

Krakenskull took Ruina’s translation and directed his steed a short step back, keeping hollow eyes on the knights.

Axl forgot he was still in a mech when he hugged his parents, but they were as sturdy as he was and didn’t object.

“Everyone have everyone?” Aaron called out.

“They might still be planning something,” Ruina said dryly toward Krackenskull, supposedly to herself but loud enough to be heard by the knights.

Aaron directed a retreat.

Lance sighed, holding the camera drone to his chest for consolation of his mech. The people boarded up the Hotspur and other mechs to break off what chains were left. They drove off.

Aaron laughed between triumph and relief. “That could've been a lot worse.” He glanced along the knights as they drove away. “Think we should go back for Jestro?”

“That clown?” Axl’s mother asked with a bitter rasp from the dust. “Was he making the worst of yer old friendship again?” she snapped as if she would march back and pull him out by the ear.

“It’s not like that, Ma,” Axl assured.

“Yeah, it’s not like that,” Lance agreed.

Macy looked back as the mouth of the cave turned to a spec, but too many people were crowded around the windows to see anything.

Jestro sat in a dead end of the cave, holding his head. It was cold, but he might have faked a fever for the burning from his face to his fingers.

Why did I think I could do this? He laughed at himself, colder than an audience ever had. Why did I want to do this?

The storm of emotions stilled temporarily to think. He still had more experience with Monstrox. If he knew Monstrox, and if he knew Clay, then maybe he could undo the knight’s sacrifice.

And leave Macy and the rest? You can’t.

It’s not like it has to be permanent, if Clay gets back.

Or it could stay that way.

Nothing showed from the outside, except holding his head as it ached. He might have waited out in the dark for longer before a silhouette crowded out the already-limited light.

“Clay-'' he started. Embarrassed, he stood up, wiping off his face. “Oh! Hi- hi, Ruina.”

She nodded a greeting. It was hard to see her face with the only light behind her, but her posture was softer. “I take it you don’t have much experience fighting.”

“You could say that.”

She looked at him scrutinizingly. He was out of room to back up. “Why did you come here?”

His heart jolted.

“You don’t have a spell on your skin. Nothing from Master Monstrox, anyway,” she continued, gesturing at his pale face. She grinned, so Jestro hoped it was a joke. “So what would possess you to come?”

He almost answered before it struck him to look up and study her in return. “No reason. How… about you?”

Ruina pursed her lips thoughtfully. Jestro stepped to the side when she approached, but Ruina simply leaned against the wall next to him. “Maybe you just need practice,” she said, ignoring his question. “Clay or I-”

Jestro shook his head quickly. “Thanks, but I gotta go,” he explained in one breath. He ran off.

Clay was sorting through the broken chains, disdaining all the trouble it took to get them. Jestro ran up. Thinking less than normal, he grabbed the stone knight by the shoulders. Clay blinked in surprise and turned slightly to him. Jestro circled around the rest of the way.

“Clay!” he exclaimed quietly, wary of the cave’s echo. “How long have you been here?”

Again, the knight blinked in surprise. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Five, six months?”

“It’s been- ten weeks,” he said, pressing each word.

“Oh. I was close.”

“No, you weren't! It’s been nothing. I was in community service longer than that!”

“You were?” Clay asked monotonously.

“Yes! That’s less than you were training to be a knight! That’s less than I was with the bad guys!”

“Your point?”

“My point is- It’s-” Jestro stopped, his tongue getting him nowhere. He let go of Clay and rubbed his sore eyes. “The knights miss you. We all do.”

Clay just looked at him with colorless eyes. His mouth split in a grin. He laughed, cold and cruel, echoing though the cave. Jestro stepped back.

”What’s so funny?”

”This! For how long I tried to get you back-” The laugh seemed physically painful, Clay pressing one hand to his forehead and the other wrapped over his stomach.

Jestro let him laugh. “I am going back,” he worked out. “So you can go too.”

“Who’s leaving?”

A chill ran up Jestro’s spine. He meant to run, but it took a split second too long for his legs to obey.

Monstrox peered around the quieted passageway, eyes glowing with the dark magic inside. He quickly gathered the pieces from where they were standing. Shock, anger, and disgust passed quickly through his face. “You?” he laughed like he didn’t believe it. “You're made for this, Joke boy!” Jestro grimaced at the nickname. “With the monsters and your old pal!"

“No! That’s not Clay!” he interrupted, glaring to keep tears from forming in his eyes. “This isn’t what he wanted! You’re just using him like you used m-”

“The knight is entitled to the consequences of his actions,” Monstrox replied lightly. “Just like you.”

Jestro couldn't move.

“Clay can walk out of here any time he wants. Can’t you, Knight?”

Jestro’s eyes flickered over to him by habit.

Clay didn’t speak anymore.

Jestro bit his lip and took a step back. “I’ll- I’ll come back!” he finally stammered. “I’ll come back for you,” he added quietly.

“Hey, come back here!” Monstrox barked. “I got some more things to say, Joke-”

“Let him go,” the Grey Knight growled.

Jestro quickened his pace. He covered his ears but heard him anyway.

“The coward.”

Jestro didn’t stop running even well out of the camp; the cloud, the harpies, almost any of them could catch up to him if he didn’t have the best start he could manage. The wind greedily streaked the tears from his eyes, his face red with exertion and shame.

As he ran, the pain through his heart to his lungs to his feet faded down; Not away, but as if a memory became real enough to forget about them.

Searching out the Book of Cruelty, Jestro and Monstrox were able to face- and capture- Clay in one of the rare moments he was without his team. Jestro didn’t remember why he got so close to the cage of the Evilmobile. To snatch the book from his hands, or to gloat maybe.

“Jestro, you don’t have to do this. We used to be friends,” Clay pressed gently and urgently, holding onto the bars of the cage. It was a little odd to see Clay fighting with just words, but then again, he didn’t have many weapons left. “Being evil doesn’t make you stronger or happier. It makes you… sad.”

“Oh, it makes you sad!” Monstrox exclaimed mockingly. He laughed, but Clay ignored him, looking Jestro in the face. It was hard to look back, holding the Book of Monsters in front of him.

Jestro returned to himself, breath heavy and aching. He pulled air in anyway and let himself slow down. The Fortex crept over the horizon. Jestro was slightly amazed he had that in him. The training meant something after all. His stride lengthed with the strength he had.

“Jestro!” Aaron greeted in surprise. He meant to ask if he was alright, but instead asked, “What’s the report?”

It took a moment to register the question, heart still pounding. Jestro realized the knights quickly gathered at the door, concerned.

“The stone spell is a combination of Monstrox and Ruina’s work. I don’t think it hurt him- He’s just- stronger now.”

A chill carried through the air. As weariness caught up to him, Jestro gathered the will to scale up the ramp. He sat as his heart slowed down, explaining the numbers and locations he’d gathered. Mount Thunderstruck. The new soldiers. (“Though you already figured out some of that…”)

Once he was out of information, he sank over his knees. All remained still for a moment.

“Back when I first came back…” Jestro mumbled, “Did I apologize? For… blowing up the library, for fighting you, for… everything?”

Macy, Aaron, Axl, and the rest exchanged uncomfortable glances. None of them could say either yes or no.

“There was some more important stuff going on at the time,” Lance shrugged.

Jestro smiled between amusement and resignation. “Well, I am sorry.” He wiped the ache from his eyes. “But… yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” he said more forcefully. He rose, ignoring the shaking in his knees. “It’s not important if Clay’s gonna reach us from his side. It’s not important if Monstrox thinks he can push us around!”

Macy tilted her head curiously. Axl folded his arms.

“Clay’s good at being bad,” Jestro admitted gravely. “Really good. But that doesn't matter! We’re gonna- I’m gonna fight ‘em because… because I should!”

“That’s what I wanna hear!” Aaron cheered, landing a hearty pat on Jestro’s back which nearly made him choke on his tongue. “And don’t worry,” he added more evenly. “We’ll get Clay back. Sooner or later.”

Robin, Ava, Macy, Lance, and Axl all agreed as if triumph had already come over the horizon. Underneath Merlok’s platform, an encrypted memory beeped red in curiosity.

Chapter Text

Monstrox grumbled how hard it was to find good help for the better part of the night, as they journeyed into a forest Clay didn’t recognize. It was a relief for the knight to finally interrupt with, “What is this place?” The trees, tinted with gray, were thinner and sparser than Everdark.

“Rockwood Forest,” Monstrox replied once he registered that someone else had spoken. “The rocks mark the last stand I made before Merlok locked me in that book.”

“Which rocks?” Clay asked. There could’ve been more trees, were boulders not crowding them in every direction.

“All of them!” Monstrox laughed. The Grey Knight stepped back as he soared to the sky. Electrical light streaked shadows from the gnarled trees. Once they struck, horns and giant claws broke from the stone. Stepping out of their natural shape came giants, two of which working together could easily crush the Black Knight.

Ruina grinned as she took them in. Clay wondered if they could do any better than the other soldiers at paralyzing the knights. They discussed as much as they traversed the forest, gathering a new army division with the light show.

They ventured on until a blur of green swept down from the trees and landed on the back of one of the Grimricks.

“Tally-ho!” the green spot cried, taking the form of a bot with a feathered hat and ill-fitting green shirt.

“Tally-ho!” a crowd of similarly dressed robots cried. Most of the Grimrocks shook off the intruders, the rest looking around at each other, slightly puzzled.

“Make way for Robot Hoodlum and his Merry Mechs!” the robot cried with a flourish. Clay raised an eyebrow, faintly reminded of Lance. “We steal from the rich to give to poor, misused bots!”

And, there was where the similarity ended. Robot Hoodlum lifted one of the Boulders to search for gems.

“Heyheyhey, hands off!” Monstrox snapped. He fired and the bot’s legs suddenly snapped straight. He tettered dazedly as the electricity dispersed. “Uh… I was saying…” Hoodlum muttered, rising again. “Fields… from the rich!”

Monstrox and the Grey Knight exchanged glances. Another bolt.

“Ouch… yields from the rich…?”

Once more.

The robot stood with a slightly sparked mainframe. He buzzed confusedly. The Merry Mechs peeked around the giants, worried. “Sh... Shields from the rich!”

“Where did you come from?” the Grey Knight asked.

“All over!” Hoodlum replied, still sparking slightly. “There are m-many squirebots in need of assistance, you know!”

“I know,” Clay grinned. “I also know of a partially rich heir with a squirebot of his own…”

At the moment, Lance and Dennis were pillaging Macy’s comic book collection while she cleaned up from evening training. Thump-thump-thump suddenly came from outside the Fortrex.

“Uh… did you guys hear that?”

A screet cut through the window. A squirebot burst in, wearing an odd, green outfit.

“What the-”

“Shields from the rich!” the bot cried.

Dennis gasped. “I don’t believe it!”

“Me neither,” Lance remarked as a line of bots darted past him. “Do you know how much that window cost? I mean, I don’t, but- still! Where’s the respect for property?”

“Don’t you know who this is, Master Lance?” Dennis shook Lance’s arm excitedly. “Robot Hoodlum! He’s a hero like us! Well, not exactly like us, but… Robot Hoodlum!” he called out, chasing after the robots.

“What? Hold on!” Lance shouted, running after.

“What’s going on?” Macy asked, bursting in. “What happened to my comic books?”

Aaron was a split second behind, followed by Axl and Jestro.

“Shields from the rich!” the metal thieves cried out as one. Half of them snatched onto a shield, narrowly holding on with such short arms. The other half scooped up a partner and hitched a rope over the doorway to the garage. With a leap, they kicked down the door and flew into the night.

“Did they just-” Aaron started.

“Steal our shields? I think so,” Macy finished.

Jestro blinked sleepily, barely aware of what had happened before Macy grabbed his arm and they took off after the bots.

The knights and Jestro raced until they reached an odd forest, full of pits two meters wide. There was enough time for Ava to pull herself up to her chair, but not enough time to avoid the sudden circle of stone giants around them.

“Fine malarky,” Merlok groaned. “Monstrox must have re-awakened the Grimrocks!”

“What can you tell us about them?” Aaron asked quickly.

“They’re… er, very big,” Merlok replied.

“Thanks,” he sighed. “Can you still download the shields from where they are?”

“Excellent question,” Merlok remarked. A second later, the shields lit up behind the Merry Mechs. The weapons in the knight’s hands rose to life.

The Grimrocks almost stepped back.

“Keep the knights there,” ordered Clay, appearing from the darkness.

They obeyed. Aaron shot at the one closest to him. The arrow scorched a few fingers, but then the Grimrock grabbed him hard enough to keep from firing again. The other monsters followed suit. Jestro ducked and managed to somersault between two of the Grimrocks, as they first grabbed the ones with a helmet. His heart froze, watching them struggle between the rocks.

Clay stepped out to meet the helpful machines. “They’re a remarkable technology,” he remarked to the upgraded shields. 

Robin might have bloomed at his hero’s praise, but didn’t get the chance before Clay drew his stone sword.

“But you’ll find they are no more good to broken robots than they are to me.”

“No!” Macy screamed as Clay lifted to swing.

Jestro didn’t get time to think or panic. He took a flying leap and thrust Clay’s real sword against the dark blue.

He might have squeezed his eyes shut and only felt an oof and a clang.

Once his eyes opened, he found he was shielding the shields with his stomach. The stone sword was knocked away, which he’d planned, probably. It lay by Clay’s feet. Jestro looked up warily and his mouth fell open. Clay’s yellow eyes were a cold blue, frozen from the download.

Ruina jolted and raised her staff.

“Good grief,” Monstrox muttered. He summoned up one more bolt. Quickly fading bolts of orange and blue danced about Clay, hot enough to burn his skin were it not already coursing with the energy.

Jestro breathed a short sigh of relief that he hadn’t been so good as to actually shatter him. Once he did think, Clay blinked off the shock.

“Oops,” he said quietly. His boot met under his shoulder. Jestro met the ground just in time to watch the shields scatter violently. The force of Clay’s fist sent them flying, bringing down parts of Robot Hoodlum’s camp. Aaron reached his shield first, quickly enough to watch the cracks carve into the wiring but not nearly fast enough to stop it.

“That stings,” he murmured quietly.

“Demerits for efficiency, but not too shabby,” Monstrox remarked. He shouted for Clay to jump back on board the rolling fortress, as they had Forbidden Powers to find. “Grimrocks!” he added behind them. “Destroy these knights, please. Don’t forget the one without the armor!”

“You’d leave new soldiers behind?” Macy asked, buying time with her indignation.

Monstrox seemed to shrug. “They're useful, but I can always find better ones.”

Jestro could’ve sworn his yellow eyes landed on him for a moment. He stuck out his tongue in return.

Macy gulped with realization that the warlock was serious and thrust her mace against the Grimrock’s nose. He released his grip to grab his face, startling the ones next to him. Between the rocks bumping into each other and a few good hits, the knights managed to wiggle free.

“How do you guys feel about a retreat?” Macy asked hurriedly.

“It’s undignified,” Lance huffed. “But I vote aye!”

“Aye!” Axl, Aaron, and Jestro agreed.

“Fortrex! Find you there!” Aaron shouted before he grabbed his board. He attempted to boot it back up. A spectacular leap off a regular rock sent him over the heads of the monsters, but didn’t stop him from planting back on the forest floor. Jestro was almost certain he got up before the bulky monsters could turn around, but he didn’t get the time to check.

All the knights scattered at once, the holes in the ground spreading out their paths. Jestro didn’t know he had it in him to sprint five minutes after waking up, but a screeching two-ton boulder giving chase is quite the motivator. He darted back and forth between trees and over roots, wishing desperately for a trace of light stronger than Macy’s flickering mace as she ran on his left.

Jestro jumped and skidded backward as a tree crashed in front of him. Macy darted to the right and her Grimrock clumsily followed, skidding into the trunk to knock it over. The corner of Jestro’s eye helpfully explained that the monster on his back was gaining momentum while he was losing it. The stars danced above the dark, dark, dark sky. His legs flew out of control, overriding every thought except to keep themselves or the rest of him from getting squished.

He had maybe a few lucky yards on the giant. Something black tickled the edge of the horizon and his vision. Shelter? A change in the uneven path?

Summoning what was left in his reservoir, Jestro sped up a hair. The forest shook with each of the Grimrock’s steps, steadily getting closer, closer.

He was close, very close to see what chance he had when it was wiped out in a blink.

Jestro choked as a grasp of cold metal clasped around his chest and mouth. It yanked him backward, finding himself trapped as anything.

Quiet in his ear, was a breath that smelled like toast and bacon. “Sh!” Axl advised sharply.

Within seconds, the stone giant was beside them. It ran on with barely a glance to them. It reached the dark patch and suddenly disappeared. 

A short rumble, a shocked, monstrous cry. Then the crash of rock against rock. Jestro’s breath disappeared properly to think where he’d nearly run.

“Rockwood forest is tricky,” Axl whispered. “I come here all the time for mom’s rock stew though.”

Jestro nodded a stunned thanks. He sank over his knees once released. If the clammy armor was any indication, Axl was shaking with exhaustion as well.

Both were jolted back to consciousness by a frustrated roar only a few dozen yards away. The blue crystal of a monster’s back turned away and a set of dark blue eyes turned toward them.

“Up here!” Jestro urged, scrambling up a tree. Axl jumped up and held awkwardly to the comparatively skinny trunk.

“Now what?” he exclaimed as the Grimrock growled below. It raised a boulder of a fist and crashed it against the tree. Jestro held on for dear life and recommended Axl do the same.

A trace of night vision brought an oak nearby. “There!” Jestro shouted. He jumped and Axl followed. The tree swayed once the second knight landed, giving the stone giant pause. “This way!” Jestro whispered, choking on a dry throat. He jumped once more in the dark, already too afraid to feel the rush of falling. He reached out to pull the scruff of the tree toward him, but it slipped from his fingers in the darkness. “Woa-” he cried out breathlessly before his PJs tightened against his chest. Axl managed to land around the trunk of the tree and snag him.

“Thanks,” Jestro gasped, looking more carefully for the next tree as the Grimrock looked around.

Axl nodded, following him as he shimmied down a branch, sensing how far it would support him. “Where’d you even learn to do this?” whispered.

“I camped in the forest- with lava monsters,” was all he managed to get out before flinging to the next tree. Step by step, branch by branch, the gap widened between them and the monster. Eventually, stomps tracked off to find Clay and Monstrox, then there were just the noises of the night. Silence remained as they crept back to the ground and followed the others’ scent, back to the soft glow of the Fortrex.

“Everyone still here?” Axl asked, jogging up.

“I’ll look a wreck in the morning,” Lance complained. “Oh, and Dennis went to help fix up the mechs. The Merry ones, not ours,” he grumbled.

“Oh man, I’m sorry,” Macy remarked. “I know you guys were buddies.”

“Well, some of the Merry Mechs are retiring for indoor jobs waiting on me, so it turned out okay.”

“Oh, good, I got worried for a second,” she deadpanned.

“Where’d you guys go…?” Robin asked, groggily pushing open the door. His eyes shot open at the sight of them and their shields. He gave a long, loud groan at the work to be reprogrammed.

The immaculate state of his pajamas made the knights look down at themselves. They unanimously opted for the showers before going back to bed.

Chapter Text

Macy hovered at the doorway to the training room, debating if it was worth the effort to clean up for the morning.

She was still thinking as the weight under her eyes reminded her of a battle in Everdark Forest. The team had been separated in the black of night. After receiving an altogether impolite introduction from Whiperella, the trees swelled over Macy’s head, as if she were a lost little girl.

Why did her feet ache so much?

Horror caught in Macy’s throat like she had swallowed an ember. She looked down and found her feet clapped in satin slippers, cramping her feet while sticks and leaves stabbed against her heels. She hurriedly reached down to rip them off and her ribs nearly cracked. She gasped, finding her waist strangled in a corset and her legs obscured by a skirt two times bigger than she was.

Flooded to get back to the Fortex, she leapt into a dash. The slippers flapped around her feet, flirting with the thorns. Her stride caught onto the skirt’s hood like a trap and she crashed into the ground. Shame and anger burned at her face as she kicked in vain against the silken prison.

“Clay?” she realized aloud, looking up. He was leaning wearily against a tree, his shield limp. “Oh, no,” she groaned, covering her face while she was still on the ground. She couldn’t be seen like this! He couldn’t see her like this!

“Macy!” he called back.

She grimaced and sat up, surrendering the ribbons in full view.

“What happened to you?”

“Is it that bad?”

“No! I’ve just never seen you look so…”

“Pathetic?”

“Elegant.”

She pulled her eyes from the forest floor, the corset automatically righting her posture. “Now you’re just mocking me!”

“No! It actually looks good.” His expression saddened, lifting up his shield half-heartedly. “At least you haven't completely failed as a knight.”

“What?” Macy asked, alarmed at such a thought from him.

“I’ve been running around like a madman after a kidnapped civilian! But I can’t even save-” he choked on tears, “-a damsel in distress!”

“Lying is against the code! You just need the right tools,” Macy ordered, hitching up her skirt to stand. “Unlike this dress," she muttered. She shook herself out of it. "Count on me!" She raised her arms to flex against the tight satin. “I’m still as tough and fearless as ever!”

Clay smiled faintly. “I know that.” He rose with his sword and shield. Back to back, they faced the night.

Macy tripped again.

“Are you okay?”

She gave a long sigh. “Yeah.” 

Tiredness left her body. Macy pulled on a light breastplate and pulled out her mace. She smashed it against a punching bag, sending the mute thump again and again.

Aaron poked his head in stealthily. “Aren’t you gonna sleep?”

She almost jumped, then shrugged ‘Maybe.’ “I should’ve tried to take one of those rocks without Nexo,” she muttered. “I could’ve at least broken off an arm.”

“Lack of sleep has strange effects on the brain,” Aaron warned flatly.

“Ha, ha. We should set up a watch, anyway.”

Aaron shrugged, leaning against the wall. “Clay hasn’t tried to attack a full house yet.”

“He literally just got us with ten rouge squirebots.”

“Bu-ut… did we die?”

Macy threw her hands in the air. “Maybe too much sleep has strange effects on the brain. How can you relax so quickly?!”

Aaron chuckled. “I have thirteen siblings. I’ve learned not to sweat the small stuff.”

“You call this the small stuff?”

“Right this second?” he asked, gesturing to the floor. “Sure.”

Macy dropped against the wall beside him, staring blankly at his sword hanging in the cabinet. “Maybe he’s driving Monstrox as crazy as he drove us with that morning routine.”

Aaron’s grin saddened. “Sure is harder keeping up without him.”

Macy slid down to the floor. “It’s not just about the Fortrex and strategy,” she murmured. She pulled up her knees and rested her head over them. “I… I miss him.”

“We all do,” Aaron assured.

“I know.” A full pause. “Can you hold onto something for me? Leader to leader?”

“Sure.”

“I don’t think Jestro wanted to come back.”

“From what? Going undercover?”

“He misses Clay as much as I do. That’s the thing.”

“But he did come back.”

Macy grimaced. “Maybe.”

Aaron paused. His conspicuous silence, looking for a way to treat her suspicions seriously without feeding them, made Macy sigh. The tiredness was back.

Finally, Aaron stood and stuck a thumb to the sleeping quarters. “Well, then let’s go talk to him! Maybe there’s more to it.”

“He’s got to already be asleep,” was her excuse. “I’m sure he means well,” she added. “I just don’t know if him going undercover was a good idea.”

“Macy,” Aaron said soberly. “You’ve gotten through so much, you've gotten us through so much, by yourself. Clay wouldn’t want- He doesn't want us to wait for him.”

Macy rubbed her eyes and conceded to put away her equipment. Once she got to bed, she left her bedtime slippers off.

The knights scoped out nearby towns for supplies and for people newly open to crash-course training. A friendly detour to Burningham ensured the monsters kept their Rugul of Blazing Burn well-camouflaged. (Though Jestro was last to leave, determined to try the yoga class led by Lavaria.) Meanwhile, Moltor and Flama’s small bakery inspired an addition to the day’s plans.

Some booth skeletons of the old carnival had been eaten up by rats seeking the permanent smell of grease. Others (legally or otherwise) were taken for storage. The rides became something between rust pillars pleading to be turned to scrap and high-risk jungle gyms. Still, in the friendly late morning light, the sight was warm for chilled hearts.

“They should’ve built the new amusement park here,” Jestro remarked wistfully.

“That’s my dad,” Lance shrugged. “Always looking for the ‘new’ and ‘exciting!’” He added little jazz-hands for emphasis.

Jestro spun around, gesturing at the aged towers and the giant raccoon nest of a tilt-n-whirl. “Exactly! This is about as exciting as it gets!”

Amoung the unsuccessful search for Miss Honey’s old booth, the knights split up for whatever caught their fancy.

“I could’ve sworn Miss Honey was shifted around at least twice,” Aaron mused, hanging with his knees looped over the rails of the CodeRun ride. He made use of the height to take in the area. Jestro remained at the base of the loop.

“That was just the changing ticket seasons,” the jester explained. “She could’ve been anywhere by the time the last of the carnival lost stock value.”

“Uh-oh, you’ve got that ‘pensive’ look again,” Aaron remarked, still upside-down. “Last time that happened, I was running through the countryside with a rare comic book and a troop of lava monsters and newscasters behind me.”

Jestro looked up with a frown before realizing the knight was teasing.

“Something on your mind?” Aaron asked, spinning back right side up while barely touching the metal frame with his hands.

Jestro adjusted on the track as it grew uncomfortable. “Don’t laugh at me,” he warned sternly.

Aaron gestured, ‘Never.’

Jestro paused, staring down at the shadows stretched under the early evening. His feet slightly ached from the miles they’d covered, exploring town to town without the pressure of bringing them to the ground. “When this all blows over… being just a regular good guy might be more exciting than I thought.”

Aaron burst out laughing.

“Hey!” Jestro protested, blushing furiously.

“No, no!” Aaron stammered, gesturing hurriedly. He jumped down and landed to smack a hand on Jestro’s shoulder. “You’re exactly right!” he said, beaming. “And I’m a little jealous you can go back to whatever life you want!”

“Well, not any life I want…” Jestro mumbled, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t what Aaron had meant.

“Jestro- Hey man, sorry if it sounds weird,” Aaron remarked, “but is Jestro, like, your real name? Like on your birth certificate and everything?”

“Oh, I don’t have a birth certificate. I mean, Sir Griffin has my age and such guessed on my enrollment parchment, but that’s it.”

Aaron nodded, remembering the first day at the academy. Back when they all first enrolled, they were too young to understand, much less care about Jestro’s lonely upbringing.

Jestro tapped his chin thoughtfully. “It’s as real as my name can be, I guess. I… don’t really remember if my parents gave me a name. ‘Jestro’ just showed up really early and I liked it enough.”

Aaron leaned against the rails, overlooking the park. On the ground, Axl poked around an infested booth with the blade of his ax. Lance watched casually, shining his lance to a mirror sheen. Macy wandered around between the overturned dunking booth and patch where the bouncy houses had been, absently swinging her own weapon in thought. He laughed again.

Chapter Text

It was darker than it was cold that night, though Clay couldn’t feel much of the campfire either way. He moved carefully through camp. Accidentally trodding on fingers wasn't likely to wake anyone, but the weight of his footsteps made his nerves shudder in the stone. He checked his sword in its scabbard, the extra weight a calculated risk.

Almost able to feel his heart beat, he crept carefully from camp, down the mountain’s path.

He stopped just outside the threshold when a woman’s voice echoed, so quietly he could’ve thought it in his mind.

“Clay.”

He shot a glance over his shoulder. The yellow light from his eyes must have given him away, but quickly pointed out Ruina.

“Was it your turn to guard tonight?” she asked flatly.

“Yes. Go back to sleep,” he lied boldly, turning back to the path.

Her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t know you could walk away from your duty here.”

“I can’t,” Clay snapped, knowing he was revealing more than he should’ve. He whipped around to face her, rage blazing through his eyes. She didn’t flinch. “I don’t know where I’m going, to be entirely honest.” His glare turned to the ground. “But I know I can’t trust anything in my mind anymore. Maybe if I take Merlok head-on- He should be back by now.”

“I can’t allow you to do that,” she said simply, taking hold of his shoulder. The weight of her stone almost felt like normal flesh and bone against his. “You don’t know the truth about Merlok, nor yourself.”

“How would you know?!” Clay snapped louder than was wise. He tore away, almost reaching for his sword.

The sternness on her face turned to sadness. “Because I am your mother, Clay.”

Clay let his hand fall. He glared wordlessly.

“Don’t you see the resemblance?” she asked with a dry grin.

“I couldn’t have inherited your sense of humor," Clay replied, his hands in loose fists.

He did see the resemblances once he was looking, even as memory of what he used to look like grew hazy. If Ruina cut her hair short, it easily could’ve mimicked the ‘pine cone’ Lance so liked to rib about.

He looked away.

“Let’s take a walk,” Ruina invited. “I can explain whatever you want to know.” She rested a hand on his shoulder again. If he was familiar with what a motherly touch felt like, Clay may have dropped his defenses completely.

Instead, he glanced back at camp. He nodded in agreement. Circling down the rocks, the soft crunch of their feet against the path grew docile.

“Let’s start with you,” he invited sternly. “If you are who you say you are, you didn't disappear, you left.”

She chuckled in discomfort. “Have to start with the hard one, hm? Well, I didn’t want it to happen. Not any more than you did.” Her gaze unfocused, the memory distant. “Somewhere along the line, I let Monstrox’s magic mix with mine. I couldn’t remain in the friendship of the king, so I became Stoneheart.”

“Your magic? So you’re- a wizard by birth?” Clay asked.

She nodded. “I anticipated it would make you and your brother a target for Monstrox eventually.”

Clay froze again. He rubbed his temples and decided to deal with that later.

“Does that mean- Will I have to join you? Live with Monstrox’s magic… in mine?” The cool night circled around the numbness in his skin.

Ruina didn’t answer.

“If I have your magic, why didn’t I know?” Clay pressed.

“I didn’t exactly have time to give Merlok instructions. He just wanted to give you a normal life, I expect. What did he do for you, anyway?”

“While he was the king’s advisor… I spent most of my time at the Knight’s Academy.”

“Did you ever try to perform magic?”

“No, of course not.”

“There you go.”

She started to walk again, and he followed.

“Who was my father?” Clay asked, his voice growing smaller.

“He was a knight,” was all she offered.

They circled the mountain in silence. Ruina folded her arms behind her back, her eyes twinkling almost a natural brown. “I didn’t think I would see you again. Regardless of how you came, at least you're still alive.”

Clay studied her again, letting the truth soak over the lens in his eyes. He smiled too.

They discussed strategy, some memories, with long stretches of silence. Ruina’s duller yellow eyes twinkled lightly in the moon’s shadows.

She sobered as they circled back to camp. “Good night, Clay.”

“Good night… mother.”

She shook her head. “While we’re here, call me Ruina.”

Clay obeyed.

Ruina went back to bed, but sleep was farther still from Clay’s mind. He retreated quickly to Monstrox’s portion of the camp. The necromancer was snoring inside the battered monster book.

“Master Monstrox,” he hissed, controlled enough so as not to wake anyone else.

The book opened a bleary eye. “What? We under attack?”

“Monstrox,” Clay continued. His voice was even but betrayed by strangled fists. “You never told me Ruina was my mother.”

The wizard properly awoke and rose back to cloud form. “Neither did Merlok,” he sneered.

“Merlok is no longer my master. You are.”

“Alright, alright, glorified coat rack,” Monstrox muttered. “I couldn’t resist seeing the duo in action. But she wanted to tell you herself, so I let her tell you herself!”

Clay unclenched his fists, conscientiousness of his decorum catching up to him. “Was she on the Wizard’s Council?” he continued anyway.

Monstrox nodded.

Clay hesitated, but Monstrox read his silence.

“Her magic should be in you, alright. With my help, it could be even better than Merlok’s.”

Clay stared at the ground. The early morning was only a breath away, but the weariness finally struck. He bowed in apology and gratitude. “However I can assist,” he promised.

Monstrox chuckled. “This is why I wanted you on the team. Clay Moorington keeps his promises.”

“You don’t know what this is about?” Macy asked Aaron, meeting him first in the main room as Jestro and the others put away the mechs.

He shook his head. “An uncovered memory or something? Just that it’s important.”

Macy grinned dryly. “When isn't it important?”

Lance, Jestro, and Axl walked in, yawning unapologetically. Ava sat at her desk, resting her head in one hand, the other hovering over Merlok’s volume as he nervously tapped his staff. Robin kicked his feet from where he sat, waiting.

“Ah, looks like everyone’s here,” Merlok said once his sound came back with a strange brightness. “I trust the day was restorative?”

The knights nodded but didn’t revoke their curious looks.

“Yes…” Merlok replied quietly to their somber call. “I was sure this would be easier to explain just before you all go to sleep… Easier to process as well.”

“It’s what you found while you were stuck in the library, right?” Macy offered. “Someone who could change everything?”

“Yes. Now that you’ve seen her in battle… I knew it was a matter of time before I had to explain it all.” There was no way to take a fall slowly. He took a breath. “Ruina Stoneheart. Before an older spell of Monstrox, she used to be Wanda Moorington.”

“What?” Aaron exclaimed, the sleepiness of the room evaporating in unison. “She’s related to Clay?”

Merlok nodded. “His mother.”

“What!” he exclaimed again.

“What?” Jestro whispered.

“What,” Macy deadpanned.

“I witnessed Wanda’s corruption,” he explained, “She fought it a long time. But with her second son just learning to crawl, she- well- she entrusted me suddenly with Clay.” Sadness overshadowed his words. “I believe Fletcher Morrington was lost in a duel she waged against Clay’s father. I hoped I could simply look after Clay until she was brought back.”

“Were you friends?” Lance asked softly.

“Well- Siblings.”

“WHAT!” Aaron asked one more time.

He nodded sadly. “Once she won, Monstrox intended to bring her against the rest of the wizard’s council. I casted the petrifying spell as it was the only way to stop her without hurting her. I hoped to leave and find a way to revive her, but then the wizard’s council was torn apart by Monstrox’s reign. Then, I meant to tell Clay after you all graduated; I thought, as in peacetime we might be able to find a way ourselves… but that never happened either.”

Jestro’s posture sank. Lance put an assuring hand on his shoulder.

“I wanted to tell you before any of our enemies exploited it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Monstrox knew it all already.”

“The snake,” Macy hissed under her breath, the events of the queen’s capture spending her mind.

“Now…” Merlok said, gathering his strength, “I believe I’ve recovered enough memory to answer any questions you might have.”

“I don’t know…” Axl muttered, speaking for everyone. “Will Clay be okay?”

The wizard’s eyes fell. “I don’t know that.”

Robin looked to Ava with wide eyes. She just sat with her head and arms over her desk.

Merlok looked back at the knights. “I'm sorry for keeping you all in the dark. Perhaps- it's best you get to bed. We can discuss more in the morning.”

Aaron broke the stillness, scooting out his chair. Lance followed, to wash the dust and stress from his hair. Macy turned vaguely with Jestro and Axl, but watched Robin and Ava say their goodnights.

“Merlok?” she asked just before he shut off his hologram.

He glanced at her quizzically.

“I’m… sorry about your sister.”

“Thank you, Macy,” he smiled sadly. “Get your rest.”

Chapter Text

Ava’s hands hovered over the keys as she stared at the screen, the magic signals rippling from the outskirts of the forest. The Fortrex shuddered faintly as the shockwaves wrapped around it.

“How many more powers do they need exactly?” Aaron asked.

Jestro shakily held up three fingers. He counted again, but got it right the first time.

Macy climbed up to the telescope and counted through the trees.

“Krackenbeast is digging for something…”

Ava nodded that would explain the second, fuzzier signal under Petrifying Quake.

Macy squinted and counted again. “There’s only… Monstrox, gargoyles, and a few Grimrocks watching them! Clay and Ruina must’ve taken part of the army to cover more ground!”

“How are the new shields looking, Robin?” Aaron asked

“Uh… Well, they can protect you from projectiles!”

“We just need blunt force to break those things, right?”

Jestro and the others nodded with moderate confidence. They followed first the signal, then the birds fleeing from overturned trees.

“Okay, okay, we’re done here!” Lance shouted as if he were dragging Clay from an argument over the merit of the Code. “Merlok! Nex- o Knight!”

His shield flickered feebly. “Gah! Why is this so difficult?”

Monstrox rolled his eyes and gestured to Krackenskull. The beast reared up with a blast of blue light. A dozen trees turned black and cracked, caving down between the knights.

General Garg reached into the ground for the new tablet. Axl shoved the tree from his back, and took to freeing Macy and Lance, as Jestro and Aaron managed to slip between the petrified trunks. Aaron wound up his bow. Jestro charged for the tablet.

Garg deflected Aaron’s shot on his shoulder. Axl and his mech threw the trunks down on two Grimrocks, letting Lance slide through. He jabbed right at the head of the Krackenbeast. Once his lance contacted the tablet, the silver suddenly turned black and gained twenty pounds. It slipped from his hand and cracked on the ground.

“How do I keep losing my best equipment!?” Lance screamed.

The Krackenbeast stomped and shook the earth.

Macy nearly made it to Garg when the shockwave reached her. Her arms pinwheeled for balance and were snatched out of the air by a Grimrock. A whip of cold air, then she slammed against the side of the Fortex dropping with a sear of pain down her arm.

Jestro stopped, staring up at another Grimrock. They were even bigger in the light. He bared his teeth and dashed between its legs, barely having to duck. He sprinted toward Garg, but the general flung the tablet out of the way. Jestro’s eyes followed in horror as it landed in Clay’s hands. Ruina appeared behind him, beneath the shadows. They exchanged a quick, sharp, glance.

Garg jumped out of the way as Clay raised his free hand. A burst of blue shot toward Jestro, flooding his head. He stumbled back and the trees began to bend like rubber.

Aaron dove nimbly around the Grimrocks and sudden blasts from Clay, snagging Jestro by the collar.

Lance stumbled away from the Krackenbeast’s forefeet as the earthquake faded. He reached Macy and gasped at the dent in her armor.

“Retreat!” Aaron shouted. Axl ran to catch Jestro as Lance helped the redhead to her feet.

Aaron planted himself in front of the drawbridge, grunting as a blast of magic bounced against his mech’s shield. Clay stepped to one side as Lance threw the handle of his lance at the closest Grimrock. It bounced off unceremoniously, the giant watching it fall. It was enough time for Merlok to activate the engine.

The treads rattled uncertainty from the pebbles crammed in the tracks, but managed to turn. Macy ruefully sat as the pain in her arm grew sharper.

“You okay?” Axl asked, carefully removing his hand from under Jestro’s arm.

He wobbled, looking around with his mouth slightly open. “I know we just defied the odds and all,” he mumbled, “but can you- turn down the disco lights…?” 

At the wheel, Ava snickered. She laughed. Robin and the knights looked at her in a split second of shock before she coughed and recommended she take over the engine so Merlok could tend to the injured. Jestro was too dizzy to tell if she was laughing at or with him, but her smile was so bright, he found himself hazily grinning too.

Clay squinted as his, Monstrox, and Ruina’s power flooded against Aaron’s shield. It all blended together.

Aaron latched on to the outside of the Fortrex before it sped off but didn’t drop the shield even after the spells stopped.

Once the adrenaline cooled, the Grey Knight grimaced, sensing the energy he’d wasted. He looked over as Ruina placed a hand on his shoulder, pulling him slightly toward her. She gave a simple smile.

Jestro opened his eyes groggily, feeling slightly worse than having woken from a bad nap. “You okay?” he asked, noticing Macy on the opposite bunk. She sat propped up on pillows. No bandages, but a hospital bed was a hospital bed.

She glanced over and nodded, pointing at her shoulder. “It was just dislocated, Merlok fixed it up okay.” She stared at the ceiling for a moment before adding, “You?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He sat up, keeping the blanket over his lap. “We didn’t stop them from getting the next power, did we?”

“It’s pretty safe to assume the worst.”

“The worst,” Jestro laughed tiredly. He leaned back against the wall. “It always has to be the worse option. Why can’t it ever be easy?”

Macy’s lips pressed slightly. “Was it easy with Monstrox?”

Jestro looked over. He looked down. “Yeah.”

Something flickered out of her eyes. She turned away.

“But it was awful.” Jestro twisted the blanket. He closed his eyes and took a steading breath. “I know Clay hates it, even if he can’t say so.”

Macy turned, letting her feet fall over the side of the cot. She studied him intensely for a moment.

“...What?” Jestro asked, shoulders scrunching uncomfortably.

Macy gave a long sigh, pinching the ache in her shoulder. “I know you want Clay back. But- you come out of hiding, then it turns out the necromancer’s not really dead, and then Clay- Clay! the best of all of us! -gets enchanted? What am I supposed to think?”

Jestro was briefly stunned. “I don’t know! I don’t know you as well as Clay or frankly any of the knights do, I don’t know Clay as well as anybody or you do- and this feels like it should hurt a lot more than it does!” he exclaimed, grasping his head. “I got hit with a blast of magic, right? You saw that too?”

Macy nodded.

“Sorry, I’m off-track- You just- I just- Clay saved me, more times than one, in more ways than one. I do want him back. Maybe not more than anything but- more than anything. Does that make any sense?”

Macy stared back at him, her shoulders slouched in what felt like defeat. As much as she hated it, she felt much more like a helpless princess than a knight right then. She nodded.

“Then… I can still be a part of the team?”

She sighed, too tired to restrain it. “I don’t even know if we have a team without Clay.”

Conceding her strength, Macy fell back over her pillow. Her arms folded over each other, joints in her fingers mismatched and spread like delicate lace over her arms. “I’m sorry that I snapped at you when it first happened,” she mumbled. “Maybe that’s why you wanted to go back.”

“That wasn’t the reason,” Jestro smiled sadly. “But… thanks.” Macy didn’t say anything more, so he did. “Do you remember the plays Lance used to put on at the Knight’s Academy?”

Macy laughed tiredly, which was a yes.

Jestro smiled and thought for a moment more. “I don’t know how it all happened- how Clay and I became friends.”

Macy glanced over again.

“I wasn’t bold like Lance or Aaron, I didn’t exactly bring good snacks every day like Axl. I never even really had those long conversations you had with him back then.”

Macy might have remarked that many of those talks were arguments about homework or training or the authority of the king. But she stayed quiet as guilt welled up in Jestro’s eyes.

“Maybe I didn’t contribute anything worthwhile. But… I was part of the same mission, and Clay always said that was enough.”

Macy gave a short sound affirming that she had heard and could possibly even agree.

Jestro gripped the mattress to stand. “If I’m still just the comic relief, if you really want me to,” Jestro swallowed, “I’ll get out of your way. Hide out in a sauna or something where Monstrox can’t follow.” He paused and blinked hard. “I just want to pay that back. Even if there’s no reason he’d talk to me again if I ditch, if that’ll help Clay, and the kingdom… that’s what I’ll do.”

“Oh, don’t be a dolt.”

Jestro eyebrows disappeared in his hat from sheer surprise as Macy rose to her feet.

“Clay wouldn’t stop being your friend if you stayed out of the mission! Gosh, you act like you gave the knight’s pledge and everything.”

“I’m… confused right now,” Jestro stammered.

Macy stretched the bags under her eyes, her memory playing out as clearly as the lunchtime bell. “You were not useless! Yeah, a lot of people knew you as the comic relief and that was fine,” she grumbled. “But frankly, not being a part of any one club, while trying it at all of them-”

Jestro did remember that, particularly the burnout he sustained through theater, training, obstacle course racing, and even cooking. He had never suspected the dangers involved in cooking.

“You…” She bit her lip. “Well, from what I can get from Ava, you’re like a holding capsule for the team, even when none of us can be, and I saw that when we were at the academy,” she explained. “You try really hard. At everything. But you made everyone smile when you weren’t trying.”

Jestro barely blinked, watching her pace the feeling back into her feet.

“You made everyone smile, you made everyone laugh, you just… made it something worth fighting for. Frankly, we had to make due when you were gone.”

Jestro softly raised a hand to his heart, meaning to confess how monumental it was to hear, when Macy suddenly snapped her fingers. “Waitaminute,” she muttered, her eyes swelling. “A capsule…!”

Monstrox gave up on trying to get Clay to give up on practicing the spells and let them all sleep, so he sent Ruina.

The sorceress just watched for a moment. He wasn't trying to make the blasts any larger- if anything he was trying to contain them already. The scorch marks all along the trees lended themselves to aiming practice with stunning spells.

Clay froze once he caught sight of her, then stared at the ground, ashamed. He grimaced as she lifted his chin but didn't object.

"There's nothing either of us can do," she said softly. An odd, uncomfortable feeling rose from the pit of her stomach. "If he makes it, he makes it. If he doesn't... There's nothing we can do to keep him from the battlefield if that's where he wants to be."

"Do you really think that?" he asked quietly, still staring at the ground.

The feeling doubled over. Unplanning, Ruina rested her forehead against his. She held on for just a moment. The whole strangled woods were quiet. "Get some sleep," she advised finally.

Clay obeyed, letting his staff fall discarded against the forest floor.

Chapter Text

“Alright, I’m breaking up the party,” Monstrox said, floating between Clay and Ruina. “You two have been whispering for days and it’s time to come clean!”

“How perceptive of you,” Ruina remarked. She righted from their huddle over the Black Knight’s table. “I recall a bit about the Colossus, and you’ve filled the gaps in my memory.” She folded her fingers like a deck of cards. “You see, after we finish over my brother and the knights, I’d really rather not help reign over a long pile of rubble.”

“Ah, that is a problem,” Monstrox remarked just as politely. “You see, my dear Ruina, I’ve been at this for a while. And organizing a flowery kingdom to rule? Not really my style. So, the feedback’s appreciated and everything, but I’ll have to ignore it.”

“We’ve listened to you, haven't we?” the Grey Knight snapped. “So listen to us!”

“Thank you, Clay,” Ruina said, warning him to watch his tongue. He obeyed. “That’s what we would take care of,” she continued more forcefully. “The king and queen would rather surrender than watch us crush the kingdom. Once they do, we dispose of them and usurp the throne room.”

“As for the princess,” Clay continued naturally, “she could be a valuable hostage to keep the people in check. They won’t take it sitting down.”

“Her loyalty may even be enough to protect the kin of her father’s legacy.”

“Though I can’t say that for certain,” Clay added.

Monstrox eyes sparked dangerously. “I don’t need you guessing what will become of the knights,” he warned Clay. He gestured to leave them alone.

Clay hesitated but obeyed.

Ruina let her hands loosen, but retained the gleam in her eyes. “Tell me,” she invited, “what will we do once Knighton is dust and ash?”

“Onto neighboring kingdoms. They should only get more interesting the further we go.”

“Is this a game, then?”

“As much as we like!”

Ruina smiled coldly. “As we like, yes.”

Monstrox frowned, reading between the lines. “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that you don’t really know him, not as well as I do.” His voice lowered, the polite mask snapping off. “And I’m sure you just temporarily forgot- I haven't been beaten. Not once. You want a reason to fight? A reason to live? I’m the best reason you’ve got.”

They glared at one another point-blank.

“Alright,” Ruina shrugged, turning. She took her staff and leaned it over her shoulder. “We’ll meet you at the mountain.”

“Hm?”

“We split up to find the last Forbidden Power! Awesome Annihilation, right? We’ve backed those knights into a corner. We must waste no time to strike.”

Good, Monstrox smiled to himself. She’s back.

Ruina paced outside the Black Knight, finding Clay standing guard. She grabbed his wrist and kept walking.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

She tried to continue but was resisted. She looked back at Clay, no longer the small boy who would follow wherever she led. The streak of smoke on her heels faded when she met his confused eyes.

“Ruina?” he asked.

She let go of his wrist and took his hand. “Trust me, son.”

He paused and wrapped his fingers around hers, the ones which retained a faint blue glow. “I do.”

Despite not understanding a word, Clay proudly grinned as Ruina exchanged with Lord Krakenskull to borrow his steed for their little competition. He was even prouder when the general allowed it.

They left immediately, needing nothing more than the weapons in their hands. They scaled a shouting distance then doubled it, Ruina guiding the beast and Clay keeping the pace by her side. Hardly enough time to even be tired before the harpies crossed by overhead.

“Now what-”

“Do you think-”

“You're doing?”

“Unbelievable,” Ruina snarled and whipped her staff toward the trio. One sister tumbled to the ground and the others darted out of the way.

“If you’re going-“

“At least it’s not-” 

“With Petrifying Quake!” the third exclaimed, shaking off the spell.

The Krackenbeast roared and scuffed as they dove toward its face, scratching at the tablet. Ruina jumped from the bucking beast.

Clay tried to leap up to the reigns but was quickly humbled. It was easy to forget he wasn’t the only one made of stone.

He grabbed Ruina’s hand to run, with or without the ride. “Come on! We can still-” he lost his voice as the Krackenbeast reared up. Thrashing bluntly at the harpies, it drove a horn against Ruina. She crashed backward against the dirt with a loud crack.

“RUINA!” Clay shouted. Though her eyes still had life in them, she didn’t rise. With a shuddering breath, pebbles snapped out from the deep crack in her middle.

Clay seized the staff which had fallen from her hand and fired against the harpies. The light exploded further than he expected, but he didn’t mind. The harpies shrieked and crashed against the ground.

“Mom-” he exclaimed breathlessly, lifting her with all the care of a rock slide. Kraken skidded around them, nervously scuffing against the ground. Clay didn’t pay it any mind, watching in horror as fear infected Ruina’s cold face. The blue cracks filled quickly with red.

“Hold on,” Clay ordered. He glared as the harpies fled back to Monstrox. How he wished to tear them from the air properly. Instead, he pulled himself and Ruina back onto the beast, forcing it to calm itself with the reins. Dropping the extra weight of his sword, they fled.

The blood bubbled darker, looking redder than a normal mortal’s against the stone. Clay’s mind ran faster than the Krakenbeast as the wind swept across his numb hands. Was she flesh inside all this time? Was it the same for him, if something broke through his skin?

She’s not dead yet, he reminded himself sternly. The shuddering breaths below his chin proved that much.

Try as he might to think clearly and find a better option, he couldn’t. He directed the beast to the palace.

The squirebots fled upon seeing him. Turning Ruina to shield her from further damage, Clay kicked open the giant doors. In the corner of his eye, he saw the king and queen staring down from a balcony, still with shock. He didn't blame them. Nor did he meet their eyes, but ran on to the library. Merlok’s platform flickered on. The wizard looked over, eyes widening.

“Wanda!” he gasped.

Clay reached for his sword but was forced to raise his shield instead. Rattling from adrenaline and exhaustion, he lowered Ruina down, supporting her head with his free hand.

“Fix her,” the knight ordered sharply. His intimidation was weakened when he registered Merlok’s words. “You know her human name?”

“My own sister? You’re supposed to be the brightest in the academy, Clay,” Merlok chided, immediately steering the platform by her side.

Merlok scanned over the crack carefully. Jagged stone jutted sharply in and out of the wound. Clay cursed himself for how much more blood he might have made her lose on the way.

Her breathing grew shallower. Ruina smiled callously and tried to say something, but was mounted by the pain.

Waving his staff evenly, Merlok lifted out the loose pieces and held down the bleeding with orange light. Ruina hissed in pain, squeezing her eyes shut. Merlok murmured an apology.

“Clay, go up to the top shelf,” he pointed up to the elevator platforms. “Find me a blue potion with a gray ribbon!”

Clay obeyed, though his steps were slowing. A chill rippled through his body, scanning if he could feel the same softness inside. As he ascended, impatiently jumping from platform to platform, Merlok froze in realization. The potion would fill in the cracks from infection and bleeding, but without a normal inner layer of skin, it could soak into her lungs before hardening.

“Wanda,” he whispered fearfully, the hologram of his hand scattering as he tried to take hers. The buried youth peered from under his beard. “I can’t fix this alone. I need your magic.”

She forced her open eyes in narrow slits, disdain under the waves of pain.

“Please. I can’t believe it has to end this way.”

Ruina grimaced. Shaking, she lifted her hand and clasped the podium. Her breath seized.

Merlok raised his staff and his strength. The downloads spun before him, tinted with purple light.

"Reervi petri…” he murmured. “Petri levar!” 

Clay whipped around. He dropped the potion and jumped nearly the whole twenty bookshelves down. Ignoring the cracks sent through the floor, he dashed toward her.

“What did you do?” he exclaimed, vicious the anger in his voice until he heard her take a full breath. With a pained grunt, Ruina sat up against the library desk. Her face, her arms, everything, was gray with shock, but soft as wet clay. Her eyes were bloodshot like she had been pulled through a dozen years in an instant, but the paralyzing pain had fled.

She stood up slowly before grasping her stomach.

Merlok sprung open a desk drawer wirelessly and lifted an old roll of gauze. Clay snatched it from him.

Ruina sank back to the ground. Clay clumsily tried to help her wrap up the distorted stretch of skin under the tear in her dress, only clipping her with his stone fingers.

Ruina carefully did most of the work herself, Merlok watching anxiously. She released a shaky breath and Clay helped her back up.

She was much lighter now. Too soft for him to feel her. But with the clammy sweat pressed against his shoulder, he could see that she was there.

“Let her rest. As much as she can,” Merlok advised.

He nodded and put an arm around Ruina’s back.

“Good luck, Merlie…” she murmured as they exited the library, a grim smile once more on her lips. They departed from the castle, as undisturbed as they had come.

Merlok watched, breathless with shock. His hologram vanished to get back to the knights.

Chapter Text

Jestro’s hands turned into a blur as he juggled copies of the Knight’s Code in a tight circle. It kept his hands busy, if not his imagination. He glanced over the horizon for signs on Monstrox and back at the knight’s stations spread over the mountain. Axl and Macy were suited in mechs just behind him. Lance covered the upper-middle level of the mountain in a makeshift battle suit and Aaron guarded the top, if bad went to worse.

It was stressful at the base. Especially with the giant face glaring down.

A crumble of loose rock made Jestro’s heart jolt. The books dropped against the dirt. Axl looked over to the noise. His alarm turned to concern when he saw Jestro frozen, kneeling down to pick up the books. He stared down at a page that had fallen open.

“Its most profound pillars of Honor, Respect, Loyalty, Courage…”

“Are you gonna be okay?” Axl asked, scaling partway down.

Jestro rubbed his forehead. “We’ll never get Clay back, will we?” He knew it wasn’t fair to say, but it was too loud in his head. “I saw him, he wants to get out of that spell, but it’s stronger than him. It’s stronger than all of us…” His lungs halved their size, unable to speak further.

Axl tried to speak assuringly, but Jestro hardly heard. All the gentleness, all the goodness that had brought him back, it just wasn’t enough to beat the necromancer’s raw power. Even the first evening he made up his mind to be good, Monstrox would’ve taken completely over had it not been for a weak spot and Merlok’s strength-

He realized he must’ve been ranting aloud when the princess’ stern voice interrupted.

“That wasn’t about strength.”

“Maybe it was for me,” Jestro exclaimed. “It wasn’t even me, it was the Book of Betrayal that made me come back!”

“If that dorky magician that rode with Clay to the Fortrex door wasn’t you, then I saw a ghost,” Macy said, setting her hands on his shoulders for attention. “How did we get back to the arena after Clay was captured?” she asked. “By sneaking. Sneaking! We had the inside man we needed to get in, we just needed courage,” she pressed with a poke to his chest. She smiled sadly. “For how long it took me to be a knight, I thought that if I couldn't fight my problems, I couldn't do anything about them. But I’ve never seen Clay as unorthodox as when he went to rescue you. Sneaking behind our backs, cooperating with the enemy- it was more your usual style than Clay’s-”

Jestro cringed.

“But we needed it to win!” she finished emphatically. “Clay’s your friend, but you're his too. Friends help each other, however they can.” Macy swallowed, lifting the brim of her helmet, her face pink with determination. “And it’s time I start acting like a friend, too.”

She gestured for him to draw out his sword and shield. He did.

“Axl, can you cover both zones on this side?”

Axl cracked his knuckles and nodded.

She turned back to Jestro and gestured for to him to follow her to the Hotspur. “Stay behind me.”

Jestro swallowed and nodded.

 She checked the radio once more with the others. “Whatever Monstrox tries to do, we bring him down and get to Clay, even if we have to drag him home!”

“It’s a plan,” Aaron agreed, grinning audibly through the static.

Ava, Robin, and Merlok checked for waves of magic every ten minutes as they waited. The verdict remained the same. Something was nearby, but with its size and scrambled color, there was no telling what power Monstrox would bring.

So they waited and waited. Lance took his turn to check through his binoculars. He adjusted them carefully and tapped the radio on his helmet. The Black Knight’s dust tainted the horizon.

In quick succession, the knights tapped back that the signal was received, and ducked behind the rocks. The army drew near, just past a shouting distance.

Lance peeked from his hiding spot, taking one more glance to check who was at the head. He adjusted the lenses and circled around the crowd of monsters. Frowning, he tapped his radio. “Guys?” he asked, coughing slightly on a dry throat. “Anyone see Clay…?”

Macy jumped to her own telescope, but the Black Knight was close enough to see. He wasn’t among the army. The bars of the helmet were dark- no lantern inside.

Aaron grasped his bow tightly. “Ready, Macy?” he whispered.

She nodded. Jestro’s seat in the back lurched as the Hotspur dove down the mountain. She drove down a lever, and a round, clear capsule shot from the mouth of the mech. It snapped shut in midair, taking a chunk of Monstrox’s size. The heels of the Hotspur sent up dust, blocking the way.

“Where’s Clay, you snake?” she shouted.

The Cloud of Monstrox jumped away from the capsule as it fell and burst against the ground. “What?” he exclaimed. “I thought you had him!”

Macy’s eyes turned red, but she didn’t get to knock down the door of the Black Knight before Jestro urgently tapped her shoulder.

“I don’t think he’s lying,” he whispered.

Macy’s eyes widened at him, then at the cloud.

“I had to come on the off chance he’d get here first,” Monstrox muttered, regathering a bit of the lost vapor. A grin formed on his warped body. “But if he’s not with you…”

Clouds circled over the mount a little too quickly for simple altitude winds. A glint of gold caught under the dark blue shadow. From his post, Aaron gasped and kicked into high gear. With one improvised shot, he managed to flick a yellow tablet from Ruina’s hand. “How did you get up here? Without us seeing?” he exclaimed.

“Camouflage,” Clay replied smartly, appearing by her side.

Even after Merlok’s spell was lifted, Ruina’s skin was worn gray. Though her posture stood uneven, she certainly seemed better than Merlok’s report a week ago. With a swipe of her staff, blue light burst across the mountain’s crown, nearly throwing Aaron off the side.

Aaron shouted for backup. Lance turned and raced up the peak as Clay lifted a staff, shorter than Ruina’s and evidently picked up in the forest. Blue light caught the wheel of Lance’s mech and pushed it back. Once Axl ran up and was hit with a flash, the knights started to gather it just wasn’t Ruina’s light.

Aaron hooked an arm over the side to shoot again but was quickly introduced more personally to the side of the cliff. The ground rumbled tauntingly. He scrambled for footholds as Ruina clicked the last power where the key of the staff would go. She frowned slightly in focus and lit up the tablet with purple light.

Cutting through the howling wind, a hiss liquified with Awesome Annihilation between Ruina’s hands. It spilled through the crack. The plates on the ground spun in a sinister dance. Clay came up to the center with her, keeping watch on the knights.

“Ready?” he whispered under the rushing wind.

“Of course."

The two lifted their staffs in tandem. The mountain began to shake.

Aaron managed to hook onto the side of the cliff with the arms of his suit and ejected with his crossbow and shield. Lance and Axl recovered and ran after the glowing stream, nearly tripping among the plates.

Aaron fired into the power’s path once the spinning halted, but the glowing liquid pressed on. They watched in horror as a carving of a blast, like a skull melting away, lit up on the last column.

“Oh dear,” Lance murmured. There didn’t seem much else to say.

“Are you crazy?” Clay exclaimed suddenly. “Get out of here!”

Ruina glanced at him and filled her staff with purple light. it bloomed over the ground, layer after layer. A pulse rose under their feet. Pebbles shook free from the violent tremors. On the ground, Macy and Jestro watched in horror as the set of eyes over the side cracked open. 

“Clay?” Ruina called sharply and expectantly.

The knight glared at his old friends. “LEAVE!” he ordered, swinging his staff toward them. It pulsed with the waves of light. “The Colossus will destroy you- Or I will!"

“Retreat! Just for a second!" Aaron shouted to Axl and Lance. He turned to unhook his mech before it suddenly slipped. With a feeble crunch in a great crack, it vanished in the mountain’s waking.

He jumped on his hoverboard. “We’ll regroup on the ground!” He followed closely as Lance and Axl sprinted for the ground. They flung over gaps and skidded around corners as the mountain rose on two giant feet. The path lifted away. All three jumped, surrendering the air in their lungs. They soared just over the boulder. A few lucky meters kept them from smashing into the Hotspur.

They found Macy curled in on her stomach, her whole weight pressing down a clear orb with Monstrox mist inside. The scratches on the Hotspur looked like Jestro had driven around the army while Macy held the necromancer.

The monsters paused with the rest of them, staring up at the rumbling tower. A piece of earth crumbled between them, startling the Harpies back. Jestro jolted the Hotspur to shield Macy from the rocks as General Garg hissed and shouted at the army to get out of the way.

The air roared with the falling rock. Once it finally stilled, they stood and peeked around the boulders, up, up, up at the Colossus. Two arms like cannon barrels burst from either side of the crown, aglow with Forbidden Power. Clay and Ruina stood on top, staring down the rushing storm.

Clay planted his feet with his staff, holding onto Ruina with his free hand. The one holding the staff twitched and sparked; the magic was still uneven. He held tightly to Ruina as the Colossus titled sharply.

The giant boot slowly lifted. Its shadow fell dark as night over the three figures frozen between stone walls.

“We win, Monty,” Ruina whispered between her teeth.

Breathless, Jestro leaped from the Hotspur and tried to grab Macy’s arm. There was still room between the boulders to escape, but she had the capsule grasped too tightly.

Monstrox’s cloud hissed with fury, flooding the orb with lightning. “I’m still mist, you know!” he shouted at the princess. “It’ll crush you before I feel a thing!”

With effort twisting her face, she grinned. “There’s enough crazy magic in there to try!” She bent her neck over the capsule like steel.

Aaron shouted for Jestro to get out of the way. He just stared up at the gray figure atop the crown.

Clay grit his teeth, pressing down the staff with both hands, though the wind wasn’t so fierce as to topple him-

“Clay!” Ruina exclaimed, snapping him from his rage as she grabbed onto his shoulder for balance. The Colossus balanced precariously, waiting to finish its first step.

His face must’ve revealed more than he could feel- Ruina froze when she met his eyes.

Following her instinct, she pulled her hand over his on the staff. She just wished they had more practice.

On the ground, sweat began to streak from Macy’s hair. She shouted for someone to help her, her ribs splitting with the pressure against the capsule. Jestro shook himself and dove to do just that before her brief gasp for air caved to Monstrox’s barrage. The capsule exploded, throwing Macy onto her back. Electricity scattered over her armor and fled. Monstrox vanished in an instant.

The Colossus’ stomp didn’t come down. Rather, eyes turning yellow, it continued to tilt back. A deep, tossing cackle smashed holes in the air. The Colossus titled back, back until it almost seemed it would fall backward without any fight. Arnoldi, who had been watching with a kind of fascination, finally covered his eyes and woefully threw his chisel overboard.

The ground tipped Clay and Ruina like marbles. Clay pressed his staff fiercely into the ground. The twine split in two with a faint crackle of sparks. Grabbing his mother’s hand, regrettably scraping her skin to keep hold, he speared his shield in the ground’s plates. When the earth didn’t yield, they tumbled down to the other side of the crown. Narrowly, he locked his arm around one of the columns.

He couldn’t feel Ruina’s grasp, but he could hear the pressure in her breath.

“I can teleport us back down,” she said, adjusting the staff as she dangled.

Clay just grasped her hand tighter. Dangling, he kicked into the mountain- enough to send a jolt through his ankle and a crack in the stone. Pulling an arm over the column, he set the shield over his shoulder and pulled Ruina onto his back. Once sure that she was holding on, he latched on with both hands. His head spun as the Colossus lurched. Macy, Jestro, and the rest of the knights bolted over the rubble. Monstrox’s stone eyes twisted to watch them, and he laughed, a deep, harrowing sound. He took a swelling breath and the pillars spun violently. Stone grated against stone. Clay tried to reach one arm back to hold onto Ruina and was finally flung off, just in time for a surge of Forbidden Power to erupt into the sky.

The sorceress bit down her scream, and forced a spell under her back, slowing her descent.

Clay fell and fell. She shouted his name, but the light flickered from her hands. She narrowly caught herself from falling the same way. The mark on her stomach shuddered in protest with her clumsy landing. Blinking rapidly in shock, she stumbled from the Colossus as it began to march.

She reached Clay, laying in a dent in the grass. His chest was empty of breath for a few seconds, but not cracked. It took a moment for him to rise. Ruina sighed and set down her staff. They listened to the booming steps of the Colossus heading on to Knighton, the tiny cheering of the stone soldiers around him.

Chapter Text

He watched the knights run off. He watched the rubble base of the mountain crumble and the Colossus stalk off, leaving massive caves in the earth. Clay shook himself out of it and helped Ruina stand. She held the base of her ribs and frowned at the living statue on the horizon, wiping sweat from around her eyes.

“Well,” she sighed, dropping her arms. “What do you want to do?” Clay was strong enough to survive the rampage and smart enough to navigate the aftermath; that comforted her.

He didn’t react, staring distantly over at the horizon. “Did I- What did I-” he muttered, pressing the base of one hand to his forehead.

“Clay!”

He blinked in surprise and looked over at her.

Ruina stared at her son, mouth fallen slightly open. She pressed a hand to her ribs again- it didn’t quite hurt like an injury, but something was off. Tears fell numbly from Clay’s eyes, streaked with yellow light at the basin and growing clearer the further they fell. She pointed it out.

Clay screwed his eyes shut and pressed his fists tightly together as if wanting to break them. He blinked at a shift under his dead fingers, where Ruina slipped her hand. He loosened his grip.

Ruina reached up to wipe the tears from his face, slightly scraping the palm of her hand.

There had to be soft flesh under his stone skin; he felt his heart slow down.

He pulled away, checked to ensure his shield was in place, and turned to run after the Colossus. Monstrox's paces were wide, but he wasn't so quick that Clay couldn’t catch up. But his first step was interrupted by a small pressure on his hand. He looked back at Ruina.

"You don't have to take him on."

Clay shook his head. "You asked me to trust you. I still do." He swallowed, estimating the scope of the mountain's powers. "More than I trust him."

Ruina grimaced. Still holding his hand, she reached down to pick up her staff.

“You can’t come with me,” Clay said quickly. His grip trembled around her paper skin.

Ruina held on tightly. "I can't lose both of you," she whispered.

Clay smiled painfully. "You won't."

She held on for a moment then placed the staff in his hands.

He nodded quietly. “Bye, Mom.” He pulled away first, then ran.

Ruina watched him go. The strain knocked against her ribs again. Shakily, she tried to sit, but her muscles seized and her knees struck the ground. She clutched the ache, but the pain breached up her chest. It wasn’t like Monstrox’s lightning- It was soft, round edges that pressed and pressed against her heart. Suffocating.

She buckled, weakly clawing against the pressure. She knelt gasping for breath until her son was entirely out of sight.

Jestro sank to the floor of the Fortex, gasping for breath. Lance stared at the scene outside with swollen, fearful eyes. Axl had been swept up somewhere in Rockwood Forest. Macy shot a heavy hand over the door, propping herself up.

“What-” she gasped, saying what they all were thinking, “What do we do?” Even downloads didn’t make the mountain flinch. If Monstrox was mean before, he was beyond reason now, the cackle of his malice turning towns to ice before he lit them on fire or crushed them under the mountain’s steps. Aaron’s hometown of Grinstead was one of the first.

Aaron paced for a second, eyes darting between Ava’s screens. “We have to beat Monstrox to the castle. Maybe Merlok’s stored spells can pack a better punch.”

“My thoughts exactly!” Merlok exclaimed and turned to the junior knight. “Robin, even at risk of upsetting your father, it's of the utmost importance you come with us to the library! It’s time.”

Robin nodded eagerly, eyes widening with excitement.

Aaron wanted to ask what it was time for, but instead told Ava to let in anyone who needed shelter into the Fortex. “The Hotspur and Bow Flier will take out some of the pillars on the crown. Then…”

“We’ll trust Axl can manage from the inside,” Macy added, letting go of the doorway.

Jestro paused at the door of Clay's car. He secured the smaller sword in his scabbard. "I'll help you guys!" he announced, hopping aboard the Hotspur.

"Fair enough," Macy said as the engine lit up.

Lance sped ahead to the capitol with Robin and Merlok stored in the back. Aaron packed ammunition into his bow and Jestro grasped the back of Macy's seat to keep from squeezing his eyes shut. They shot off.

Jestro quickly lost track of Aaron as the Hotspur darted back and forth to avoid the blasts of the giant cannon. Macy fired back without pause. An impressive majority made their mark, but if the pillars so much as shook, Jestro sure couldn’t tell. He watched, flinching as the stone army fluctuated to keep from being crushed by a distracted step. His eyes bounced over all the gray and blue before hitting a figure running a distance from them.

“Clay!” he exclaimed. “Macy, it’s Clay!”

The knight ran straight into and through the army.

Macy’s eyes briefly darted from the target. “Stay focused, Jestro!” she exclaimed, twisting a lever for fresh ammunition.

“But- it’s him!”

Macy tapped urgently around the cockpit, swerving madly. With a good shot, a pillar- it was hard to see which- relinquished one of its blocks. It didn’t drain Monstrox’s power, but it was something.

“HA!” Macy exclaimed. Then the stain of Relentless Rust streaked through the air and contacted her cannons. “Uh oh. You’re buckled up, right?” she shouted over her shoulder.

Jestro nodded, and Macy pulled another lever, flipping the ship around. The rusted pieces screeched as they turned inside out, halting the spread as wings turned to legs. The whole ship jolted as they hit the ground galloping, the opposite direction as Monstrox.

“Tree. TREE!” Jestro screamed.

Macy twisted the wheel to avoid it, but a shadow camouflage by the darkened sky leaped from the branches. A crack came down the window as it landed.

“Clay!” Macy exclaimed. Instantly, she pulled down the brakes, uprooting a few feet of grass. She threw open the hatch before he could shatter it and drew her mace. “What’s going on now?”

“I think you know,” Clay replied. Jestro scrambled for his seatbelt as the knight filled Ruina’s staff with blue light.

The army advanced almost in a frenzy onto the palace, the Colossus not far behind. Robots and knights in training stood out with sword and shield. The king squeezed his wife’s hand. Stone met metal with a resounding crash.

Lance nearly tumbled in the shockwave. But he met the others in the library in time for Robin to throw a cord into Merlok’s moving pedestal.

“Ready when you are!”

“You gonna tell us what it is now?” Aaron asked, half-jokingly.

“On the other side!” Merlok replied. His hologram vanished and a dark corner of the shadowed library lit up.

A brand new battle suit. But it looked different, more packed with wires, unlikely for even a small body like Robin’s to fit inside.

The wizard’s voice laughed almost merrily for the fear outside. “I’ve always wondered what I put you kids through!” The screen under the helmet lit up orange with the rest of the mech, revealing a pointed metal hat perching his anxiously beaming beard.

The knights paused only a moment for a delighted gasp. Aaron dropped the Bow Flier for the bots outside, latching his crossbow onto his arm. “Lead the way, Mech-lok!”

Robin pulled a hefty lever. The ceiling cracked and peeled open like a spacecraft preparing for launch. Lance and Aaron took the signal to grab hold of the orange mech.

“ONWARD!” the wizard shouted. Out they soared and crashed atop the Colossus.

“Break off the pillars, rip up the tiles- However you do it-'' Aaron shouted, “get rid of that vile magic!”

Lance gasped in surprise and delight as Axl hooked his ax over the edge.

“Ax-man!” Aaron cheered. The giant didn’t waste time joining them in the battering of their lives. “Didn’t the thing, like, swallow you? How did you get-”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Axl grumbled, rattling his ax against the pillar.

Jestro shakily held up the sword and followed Macy as she jumped backward off the Hotspur. She stumbled slightly, her shield breaking loose.

Holding the staff limply pointed toward the ground, Clay dropped his shield in the Hotspur and walked overtop, scrutinizing them with empty eyes.

Macy’s fist was tense around her mace, watching. “Clay?” she asked again.

He tossed her shield back down and she caught it.

“Hold on!” Macy shouted before he could attack. “We’re your friends," she pressed. "I know you know that.”

Anger took over Clay’s eyes. “Don’t you get it?” he exclaimed. “Friends help each other. You can’t do that without losing your principles. And I…” His fingers cracked against each other, the agitated nerves underneath ready to bolt. “I can’t do it at all.”

Jestro threw his shield in front of the blue blast and pressed against it for maybe half a second before he was thrown backward. He threw himself back on his feet as Macy stood her ground against a second spell, her voice drowned out.

Saving her breath, Macy bounced the blasts against her shield, scorching the sides of the Hotspur. Jestro wove around the chaos, looking for a way to scale up to Clay. Finding none, he jammed a corner of his shield under a part of the landing gear which hadn’t unfolded properly. He pried it up with all his might.

Clay cried out, the staff locked in his grip as he tumbled. The Hotspur crashed on top of him.

Macy’s eyes turned white as it was still for a moment, then her mech was thrown over again.

“Is that ALL?” Clay roared and threw a blast toward Jestro.

His eyes spun in their sockets as he hit the ground, quickly pushing himself shakily up. Maybe it was the knee-knocking panic, but he could swear that spells- accidents training with Merlok, Ruina's, Monstrox's- could hurt more than that.

“Not by a long shot,” Macy muttered, and swung her mace upside the knight’s head.

Clay stumbled but quickly turned to swing back. Macy narrowly caught the staff against her shield. She was pressed back, back, until Jestro took a flying leap and slammed his shield against Clay’s side. He was just kicked over again.

The seconds crawled and the attacks spurted like lightning. Finally, with a growl of frustration, Clay swung the staff, knocking Macy’s shield from her hand. She dodged and thrust back with just her mace, eyes burning from the blue light. Jestro stumbled to his feet and took over long enough for her to catch her breath.

“Monstrox did this, remember?” Macy exclaimed. “It’s a spell, Merlok can get it out!”

“He can’t get me out,” Clay replied coldly. He swung the staff toward her, a vicious crack resounding from where Jestro caught it.

“But it isn’t you!”

“How do you know?” Gripping Jestro’s shield in his hand and shoving it back, he threw a bolt that forced Macy backward.

“You don’t want it to be you, do you?” she asked. She stood uneasily, the handle of her weapon growing slick with sweat.

Clay stilled. Under his helmet, the light in his eyes weakened.

The truth, the truth of all of it, hit Jestro between the eyes.

“I did,” he murmured. “That’s how Monstrox did it, didn’t he?” he asked, as Clay looked at him with eyes swollen in panic and rage. “He found something you wanted!”

An angry yell was his only answer before he was tossed and the dirt dug against his cheek again. Macy’s cry marked her mace flying from her hand.

Clay sighed, blue glow shooting up his arm as he flicked the stiffness from it. “I expected better,” he muttered.

Tears burned Macy’s eyes. Jestro forced his head up, watching her parry the staff with her hands and feet. His dizzy gaze fell a few paces away, where the shards of the pillar fell.

Briefly blocking out the fight, he dove for one of the shards. It still glowed.

Several things happened at once. Macy hit the ground and shielded her face with her arms. Jestro sprinted back to Clay, hardly feeling his feet against the ground. The shard in his hand vanished. Before he could feel fear or foreboding, Jestro thrust his bare hand against Clay’s back.

Jestro felt him gasp. Macy looked up just as the light in Clay’s eyes, blazing with fear and rage, went out like a candle.

Chapter Text

The knights managed to loose Awesome Annihilation, sparing the castle at least a few seconds before Monstrox caught on. Unable to reach them with the shape of the Colossus, he set off the harpies. Aaron took to the air, keeping them busy as Axl and Lance continued the barrage. Merlok just tried to stay on his new feet.

A rumble rose from within the mountain like a volcano. The pillars spun violently, nearly clipping Aaron. Equally like a volcano, a spew of fire blasted straight up from the Colossus' arm.

“Macy! Jestro!” Lance exclaimed as the Hotspur shot overhead to block the red shower. The canons and hatch were broken, but his friends were both there. “I was beginning to think-”

Macy threw open the hatch once the fire spilled off. “Go!” she shouted to Jestro.

He shouted that he was going as Monstrox readied a heavier attack. Before the knights could react, Macy gave him a boost into the pillar of Volcanic Vengeance. He hit it just slightly on his face. Falling back on his feet, he threw up his hands. The lava came spilling down and changed direction in midair, forming a dome over them.

“...What,” Lance monotoned.

Jestro’s eyes twitched. “Don’t ask how because I don’t know!” he shouted over the roar. The lava quickly cooled and tumbled back into the Colossus’s face. With an indignant start, Monstrox charged up a burst of Voltage. Jestro whipped around and tackled the next pillar. A few broken pebbles vanished into his skin. He threw out his hands and shoved the lightning back as well.

“Merlin’s mustache,” Merlok breathed.

“Dude! Since when could you do that?” Aaron exclaimed, shooting a harpy in the wing.

“Since the Book of Evil, maybe?!” he laughed hysterically. “Like I know!”

Macy cried out in alarm as the Colossus crashed a foot down on the palace wall. The king and queen were thrown in opposite directions.

“We can’t take them out fast enough!” Aaron exclaimed. “Jestro?”

Swallowing bile, Jestro set his hands on what was left of the red pillar.

“Yeah, that ain't gonna work!” he cried, pulling away as energy split across his hands, sharp and hot like lightning. He lost balance as the Colossus crashed down again. “Merlok!” he shouted. “What downloads do you have left?”

“I’m not entirely sure!” The wizard teetered dangerously. “Only so many can fit in this suit at once!”

“Give the rest to me!” Jestro pressed. “Maybe I can make the spells cancel each other out!”

“Is that wise? Even if it works, such a combination of such powerful spells-”

“I DON’T CARE!” Jestro shouted over the wind. Maybe it was the Forbidden Power hacked into his brain, but he just thought of Clay. “I WANT TO TRY!”

“Oh, Merlin’s mustache,” Merlok said again, wearily this time. He turned his staff toward him. Jestro squeezed his eyes shut and reached to take it, but the power shot into him like a magnet.

No feeling could have been more different than the Book of Vengence’s spell. Like the Nexo download, but through him. A brilliant glow, so clear and light that he felt nearly lifted off his feet.

The pillars looked darker than before, pulsing angrily, yet he forgot to be afraid as he walked against the wind and shaking ground, into the center of the platform. A boom of a crumbling castle wall threw him from his feet. He landed on his stomach, clinging tightly to the keyhole. Aaron, Axl, Lance, Macy, Merlok, the king and queen, the lava monsters, Ruina, Clay flashed before his eyes before he shut them tight. Good thing, as the crown was covered in blinding light.

Jestro opened his eyes groggily. They ached.

The cries of fear and pain quieted from over the edge of the Colossus. He looked down. Between his hands, the dark gray stone had turned bright white, like glass overrun with cracks.

“Now, NOW!” Aaron shouted at the top of his voice. The knights all at once brought their weapons, their feet, their fists down on the pillars, the ground, anywhere they could reach. Hardly thinking enough to sit up, Jestro clasped his fists together and slammed down on the center of the crown.

“Wha…?” the echoing voice of Monstrox vaguely asked before the whole glass-mountain jolted. The Fortrex, every shutter bolted, rammed against the left heel. Ava pulled back the reverse like she would never get an official license. The Colossus tipped back. Jestro almost laughed before realizing they were still on top.

Merlok, Macy, and Aaron each grabbed a handful of knights. Jestro probably screamed, though most of them did. There was a deafening crash, as the mountain fell backward. The glass shattered over the army in the blink of an eye. The rumble lasted for a few seconds, then a deafened silence.

The squirebots rose up a great cheer.

Once they reached the ground, glass coated the castle grounds. Walls and bridges had disappeared, replaced by clouds of smoke and dust. Figures shivering with pain or relief reached their friends, pulling them out of the rubble. Ava and the Fortrex rolled out of the outer ring of glass before retracting the metal shell. Women and children spilled out, running for their families.

Macy ran to her parents. She laughed with relief, holding them, then her head heavily sank over her mother’s shoulder. The king lifted her visor to check her face. His heart sank to find her eyes pressed shut with tears.

Jestro sank down on the grass before his legs gave out. The knights and Merlok looked between the two of them uncertainly.

Macy sighed and squeezed her family once more. She turned back to Jestro with a quiet nod.

He pushed himself up on his knees and then rose to the Hotspur. Under the crack in the windshield, the knights caught sight of a lifeless statue.

Clay’s hands were frozen in front of him. His eyes were frozen agape with shock, solid grey.

Jestro just wanted to sit beside the stone and not get up until his eyes stopped hurting. He looked at Macy, who looked the other way, blinking the dust from her eyes.

So Jestro pulled himself up the beaten cockpit and searched through the grooves in the borrowed sword and shield. There was nothing left but metal. If the white fuzz behind his eyes and numbness in his fingers was any implication, he didn’t have any magic left either, even if he did know a spell as complicated as reviving a friend.

He looked at Merlok, but found the same. Spent pockets. He grasped the shield with frustration, stomping down on the urge to panic. Sucking in a breath, he stumbled back into the main pile of rubble.

Under the glass, there were still blocks and pebbles from the knight’s first attack. Digging about thoughtlessly, he pulled up a still-colored shard of Annihilation. He grasped it in his palm, where it tingled, itching to dissolve.

He ran back to Merlok. “It’s small enough to break the outer shell,” he explained quickly. “If Clay’s inside, like Ruina, we just need to weaken the stone-”

“Hold on, J-Man,” Aaron remarked gravely. “Even if- there’s some Clay under there- it could just do what it did to Ruina’s shell.”

“Wanda was the one to reform most of her flesh. I just removed the stone,” Merlok murmured.

Jestro clasped the shard at the thought. He turned back to Macy, sitting by Clay’s side. The shadows of exhausted tears traced under the layers of dust. The panic in his heart sinking into sadness, he sat beside her.

“Macy?” he asked quietly. He wasn’t asking anything in particular. If she was awake, if she was okay, what she wanted to do and when, all at once. His hand holding the shard carefully opened. Her eyes slid toward it, then she jerked her head away.

The agony of the choice was apparent in her eyes. She didn't want to lose the chance of Clay for good when he was right there, but couldn’t bear to let him waste away from the inside out.

Everyone was as still and breathless as the stone.

“I am sorry, Macy,” Merlok said quietly. “I fear even magic… cannot do everything.”

“Sparks and spells, you act like you're the only wizard left in the land,” rasped a familiar voice.

Merlok looked over at his sister in surprise. Wanda had never been one to cry, but there were times, a long time ago, that made a snowy, soft light in her eyes when her outer shell was only just thick enough.

“Wait,” she ordered stiffly. She pointed at Jestro. “Don’t do anything yet.”

He nodded.

The knights let her approach the stone shell if only for shock. Macy and Jestro stepped back to give her room.

Ruina fit her hand between Clay’s fingers. Her other hand, she placed on his forehead like she was tracing out a fever.

Ruina’s breath seized with effort. Macy felt her heart nearly stop. The chest of the statue caved with a glaring crack. It cracked, trembling, then shakily rose. Carefully, Ruina brought her ear to Clay's chest, listening.

Under the stone. A tiny bump-bump, bump-bump.

She smiled and rose again. “Now you may try.”

Merlok nodded somberly. “Um… will you, or shall I?” he asked Jestro.

“You please,” Jestro replied, almost smiling as he handed him the shard.

The wizard smiled weakly. Adjusting the heavy mech, he pressed his staff over Jestro’s hand, aligning the shard in the center. It lifted with the staff in an orange glow.

Swallowing, he lowered his staff over the figure of the knight. Ruina bit her lip.

There was light- orange and white and blue- followed by something numb ripped from his chest- his whole body. Suddenly, Clay needed to breathe. Now.

Immediately the light of a sunset crowded his eyes and pieces of rock snapped smartly around his fingers and neck. He shot up, pain racking his spine, coughing violently on dust- There was so much dust in his lungs. Realizing he was awake, pain splintered through his chest. Shards of stone spilled off like he was breaking out of a tomb.

Everyone- there were at least five- around him gasped. His head rolled heavily, looking down to the skin on his hands rubbed red, his armor dented and scorched, and his clothes looser than he remembered.

In a flash of red, he recognized Macy. Her hands flickered back and forth from where they danced delightedly at her heart and attempted to reach out toward his face.

Immediately, he was confused, then alarmed.

Then…

Then…

His muscle and bone felt like they had been ripped to shreds. He tried to stand up, but collapsed, just managing to sink over his knees. His head fell like it was pulled to the ground by a ball and chain.

It was quiet, the chaos shielded by the kn- By his friends.

“Clay?” Jestro asked softly, hoisting himself over the side of the mech.

Clay covered his face. “The cloud- the magic, it was always saying these horrible things.” He choked and pressed his fingers against his throat. His skin had gone soft- soft enough to scratch like a rose in briars. “That Knighton couldn’t be my home anymore- That I had done too much, that you’d never forgive me-”

A warm hand, so strange, so gentle, rested under his chin and lifted his face. Macy’s smile twinkled under blood and dust.

He found himself in the center of arms and laughing, crying faces. All his friends' strength had been sapped by the battle, so why did it feel like their combined pressure was enough to crack his ribs, and pierce his heart?

“It’s okay,” Macy whispered, her tears trailing his neck. “He lied. Monstrox always lied." A violent tremor shook through his chest, into his throat and eyes. Did he remember this feeling? Macy pulled back- only slightly as the others didn’t let go- holding his face in both of her hands and smiling so brightly. “You’re home now.”

“Home?” Clay asked. Surely, it couldn’t mean…?

The spell was gone. But he was still here.

“You know, Clay,” Jestro remarked in what might have been a teasing tone but was still hard to tell, “you do have a heart of stone. It was always there under the cloud. The kind that’s good at protecting things inside.” He chuckled at himself. “Boy, that was poetic.”

Heat like the lighting rose inside without warning, making him tremble in every limb. Tears stung his eyes, then his face. Like a summer storm to burn down layers of ice. The water slipped through the cracks he thought he’d patched and broke them properly.

He wanted to hide, but the only place was between his friend’s shoulders. The memories surged from the crack in his chest, prying open the gaping wound. The pain had accumulated debt; all the lies, all the anger, stripping down his defense as payment.

“I thought- I thought you’d never forgive me,” he choked out. He just felt Macy’s laugh tremble against his skin- (He could really feel her-) as the painful tears spilled again.

“Don’t be silly,” she said, the ecstasy finally quieting. It was real. Not a dream. “We’re unbreakable.”

Chapter Text

Even after the adrenaline slowed, Jestro explained he wasn’t wounded. Even his eyes stopped hurting after getting out from the sunlight’s glare on the glass. After helping people out of the rubble, he just wanted to join Clay in the hospital wing. He couldn’t explain more, but the nurse tapped her full clipboard thoughtfully. She smiled at him and let him in.

Clay sat with his eyes closed, a blanket around his shoulders. It took a record-setting two minutes for Jestro to convince him to properly lay down. A hospital bed was a hospital bed, after all. They stayed in the silence of the remaining part of the castle, steadily remembering and silently forgiving both fresh and scarred wounds.

Jestro finally thought back to that day, when Clay took the fate he might have asked for, and the shudder of fear he had benched rose up again. 

"Clay?” he asked quietly. “Are you awake?”

He nodded without opening his eyes.

“When I… When we were fighting, I picked up a shard of the Forbidden Power. I thought- I don't know what I thought,” he admitted, and explained what happened atop the Colossus. He sighed sorrowfully. “I mean, didn’t the spells I tried in school just turn things into pigs? Sorry if this is a bad time, but do you think… Do you think using Monstrox’s magic for those first few months… might have affected me permanently?”

“No, I actually thought something like that might happen,” Clay replied. He opened his eyes. “If you have it in your blood, as I recently found out I do- magic just moves in you naturally.” He smiled a bit sadly. “I needed another magician if I would have a chance.”

“Right,” Jestro breathed. “Your mother- You, a wizard…” He laughed off part of the worry. “That’s actually kinda cool. But-” he started, confused again, “you thought I might absorb enough magic to fight? Where did you come up with that?”

Clay couldn't help but laugh, sitting up. Jestro blinked, blushing, but Clay quickly gestured that he wasn't laughing at him. He got himself under control but didn’t stop smiling.

“Because you’re my brother.”

There was a pause.

“Jestro? Did you hear me?”

“I’M WHAT?!”

Clay shushed him quickly, laughing again. “Don’t scare the others!”

Jestro quickly took to frantically pacing so as not to shake Clay by the shoulders. “What in the name of Knighton do you mean I’m your brother?!” he whisper-shouted.

“Yeah, I was caught off-guard too,” Clay admitted. “But as I understand the story…” He explained the situation several years ago of Wanda Moorington and a knight, how after Wanda finally caved to Monstrox’s spell, Merlok was around to find Clay. The knight looked after Knighton with the second son for a while, unable to find Merlok while Monstrox’s spell kept Wanda's mouth shut. Monstrox was defeated and the knight and Wanda were lost in battle just in time for Jestro to be old enough to survive on the streets, where Merlok found him. And they knew the rest. “So… as Wanda and Merlok share a magical line-”

“Wait, they’re RELATED?!” Jestro exclaimed again. He stopped. “No, wait, I already knew that.”

Clay nodded eagerly. “So as they shared a line, it was passed to us. Magic- totally different from book spells- as soon as we were forced to figure it out.”

Needless to say, it took a while for Jestro’s head to stop exploding. But once he did, he sat down, melting into the stiff chair. It was certainly a load off the fears of Monstrox stalking him in ghost form.

“Brothers…” he laughed quietly. “Yeah, I like the sound of that.”

“Mom had a hunch, she tried to prove it as soon as you came spying,” Clay laughed, then grimaced. “Oh, she's gonna be mad for not getting to tell you herself.”

Jestro smacked his forehead, that implication sending him again. “Oh jeez, how are we going to tell everyone?”

Clay smiled rather mischievously. “The king will definitely throw a celebration once everything is cleaned up. First I was thinking we could tell Macy-”

“Mustache of Merlin, she missed you so much,” Jestro interrupted excitedly. “You guys are getting married, aren't you?”

“What!” It was Clay’s turn to blurt. “It’s- it’s too early to say that!” He mumbled more about still technically being a peasant boy- though he wasn’t sure if Wanda would join the king’s advisors again-

“Okay, okay, I can wait to be the best man!” Jestro assured, laughing. "Should we tell them all at once? Ooh- What is she even like? How long did you know about this?"

Clay promised to explain everything eventually. So they chattered more and more elaborate setups, the last months swallowed like drops in the sea.

“Er… Wanda?” In her long gray dress, she was well camouflaged among the rubble. She was digging. Her eyes were dry and stern, but more like his big sister’s than a stranger's.

“Merlie,” she greeted evenly without stopping.

“Are you looking for something?”

“Care to help?”

“Did you… Did you see what happened on top of the crown?”

“I got enough of it. Thought I’d give them a moment to catch their breath.”

“Of course, of course.” He smacked his lips uncertainly. “As I recall, Jestro’s spellcasting at the academy only turned things into cows. When he was trying levitation spells. I mean, with Clay, I understand, but…”

Her expression was dormant, but something in her voice twinkled. “It’s like Father taught us, remember? You wanted to teach everyone learnable spells. I wanted a legacy of magicians.”

Merlok rubbed the screen where his temples would be. “But- I thought Fletcher disappeared with Arthur, then I took in Clay-”

“I still have to figure out if there’s any hope for finding Arthur. But that’s the second order of business.”

“Then-” Merlok stopped, connecting the dots. “Merlin’s mustache,” he breathed. “Is that why Monstrox waited so long to go after-? Stars and sparks.”

Wanda chuckled, then something caught her eye in the glittering mess. She held a hand up for him to stop where he was. With her free hand, she pried loose a purple, glowing shard, which must have been in the center of the Colossus.

Merlok bristled but told himself not to panic yet.

She brushed off the shard almost tenderly. The glowing briefly rose, twitching with a sound like a groan.

“Stoneheart, sweetheart!” the shard realized aloud, then chuckled. “Found your way back, huh?”

Wanda looked at him coldly. “Employee review time,” she said, pointing a finger in the air. “In all honesty, you haven’t done very well behind the wheel. Sloppy strategy, lazy retreat maneuvers, and truly obnoxious monologues.”

“Huh?” Monstrox asked, wondering if he got some rock in his ear- which was made of rock.

Her eyes darkened once more. “It was one thing to go after my magic, my brother, my friends, but my sons?”

Monstrox chuckled nervously as she cackled with a thousand curses, curly hair bristling with electrical energy. She then sighed contentedly.

“You’ve been demoted to direction’s keeper while we look for the Wizard’s Council, perhaps with some help from my brother to make things faster,” Wanda explained matter-of-factly. Continuing to the shard, holding it up to the light, “I will decide when you get a new form, and if you want it sooner rather than never, you’ll make it easier for me to find the rest of the wizard’s council and our family.”

Monstrox began to scoff.

“And if you don’t,” Wanda added. “I’ll see to it that you spend the rest of your natural life as a paperweight.”

Monstrox gulped and spoke no more.

Merlok grinned as he tossed her a satchel, which had held his shield as they had lacked the time to build a proper holster. She dropped Monstrox inside. “It’s good to have you back, Wanda- if I can presume?” he asked with a nervous smile tickling his mustache.

Wanda grinned. “Was I truly gone?” she asked, smartly but gently, remembering their past fight. “Or was I just different?”

Merlok puzzled over the thought. It had been years since seeing his sister. Not only memories, but people can change in that much time. “I don’t know!” he admitted.

She grinned again, her eyes agreeing. “Knew I’d get you to admit it one day.”

Merlok chuckled. "If you'd be so kind as to relieve my terrible confusion," he smiled a bit awkwardly, "shall we go check in on my nephews?"

Wanda sighed, taking in the bittersweet smell of freedom. "I'd like that."