Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Blakk’s prison was okay so far - probably because he was with Kord, and Trixie and Pronto got out, so he was hopeful I'd be like all those other times he found himself behind bars; quick and painless. Plus, like with Mr. Saturday, they could be sassy to their guards, and there was that side of him that loved that. It’s what they deserved! He was a hero by reminding them all that their evilness was no match for the genetic mockery that every Shane inherits at birth. They will save the day, and with a smile.

He did miss his slugs, though. They were all captured and placed in locked slugholders somewhere else. Except Doc, who knew it would be BAD for him to be ghouled. Poor guy looked so guilty hopping away as the toxic fumes entered his slingers lungs, but with a pat and a “just get us out quick”, Doc bounced to safety. So all they really needed was a breakout, everything was going to be okay.

So, when Dr Blakk came in after only an hour of them being there, Eli smirked. “Looks like we got a fan, Kord!”

The cave troll’s smile was contagious. “Yeah bro, hand me a marker, we gotta hand out some autographs.”

Thaddius, to their dismay, didn't take the bait this time. “Oh, you'll be giving out more than autographs.”

Huh, fun. He hoped Trixie found a way to bust them out soon. “No fun.”

He turned calmly to his henchman. “Separate them into different halls. Troll stays here, little Shane with me.”

That worried them. As they're been fighting him month by month, they saw the man become increasingly cruel to Eli, more frantically hateful in his taunts.

As the two guys looked at each other, they got a bad feeling about this. Then Eli smirked, and Kord was on board.

The gate to the cell opened, and Kord went up as Eli stayed behind. With cuffs, the poor guard surged to get Eli, but was knocked by Kord into the henchman.

They both sped out in the confusion, till Eli felt a jolt of pain somewhere in his neck.

Blakk had forced a needle there.

As went unconscious, he felt Blakk's hands grabbing him, and a blaster to his head. Then arms maneuvered to drag him away. Though early on into that last part, the world faded away.
__

He awoke to cuffs, a plate of food, and Dr Blakk eating it in the corner of another cell, or what he guessed was his new cell. Kord was nowhere to be seen.

He had moved his head waking up - couldn’t pretend he was still asleep.

He glared at the doctor. “Where’s Kord.”

He snorted. “He isn't the one you should worry about.”

Uhuh, sure. “I'll be out of here in no time, you've never managed to trap me down.”

Quick as lightning, he fired a grenuka at the 16 year old. He slammed into the wall, and almost thought the world was going black again.

Eli coughed once. “Hey, no fair.”

“Too bad.” And he fired another one.

His stomach hurt, and his shoulders tensed in pain. Still, “You done yet?”

Blakk smiled. “Sure, if you drink this.”

In the past few minutes, the man had finished his lunch. All that was left was a cup at the corner of his little gray tray. He grabbed it and handed it to Eli.

Eli took it and threw it at Blakk’s face.

And found the substance was red.

Dark Water.

The man nodded to some of the guards outside then addressed his prisoner. “Drink it, and I won't touch you, or your troll.”

His fists were clenched. “Kord isn’t my Troll.”

“Whatever. But cave trolls would need more dark water to start feeling it…I'll send a tank over-”

“No, you can't!”

“So you'll take some? It won't be permanent or anything,” Eli was going to blast him and his happy face away when he got out, “at first.”

It occurred to Eli that this was very, very bad. He was stunned, and didn't even respond. What should he do?

Dr Blakk seemed to enjoy his inner turmoil. “Be back soon, Eli. Give me your answer then.”

When he was out of sight, Eli sat on the floor, and tried to think of a way out. No way was he drinking Dark Water.

*

Dr. Blakk came back in a flash. Well, he had his usual casual pace of walking, but to Eli, it felt like no time had passed at all.

He was holding some dark water in another cup. Floppers, where was Trixie?

“Ready to drink?”

The Shane needed to buy some time. “Why do you want me to drink that? Can’t that stuff kill me?”

“Oh Eli, I would never want to kill you, not so close to me gaining victory.” Then he grinned viciously. “That troll, though? His tribe wouldn’t mind him dead anyway.”

His fists slammed on the bars before he could process that. “What the hell are you playing at?”

“That I’d do nothing as bad to you as I would to your friend.” And he handed Eli the cup through the bars. “The choice is yours.”

Fuck.

Now would be a great time for the alarms to go off, or the guards to be slugged, or the bars to stop working, or swing open.

But in his pause, Dr. Blakk silently eyes his henchman and nodded, and as they nearly left the room, Eli snapped out of it. “Hey!”

They stopped, and in a reckless Shane moment, he raised the cup to his lips and drank the smallest sip he could.

*

Ow. Ow. Ow-

It was like a flood. His body started shivering, his hands felt weak - he dropped the cup. His knees buckled and he was suddenly on the ground, but he didn’t notice the force of him falling, there was too much going on. His head started pounding, even the dim lighting of the cell and bars hurt to be near. His lungs were strained, and every movement hurt like hell. And all this was growing, and building, and suffocating him. He was hyperventilating, and he couldn’t breathe, he needed help, where was Trixie, maybe Kord got out-

Wait, his audience was still there. He opened his eyes suddenly, and found Dr. Blakk’s face way too close to his own. “Hurts now? A sea of it is worse.”

He smile widened at the new tears forming on the Shane’s face. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find the strength to take in oxygen -

“It’ll keep getting worse for a few hours. The effects will be gone in about a month.”

Floppers, he can’t breathe, he can’t breathe-

His face was flushed, beats of sweat making his tears hot. Eli was a Shane, he would stay silent. He wouldn’t let the bad guys see him in pain. He wouldn’t, he wouldn’t-

Dr. Blakk, in his blurred vision, raised his blaster. That was a hop rock. He shot.

Exploded, everything exploded. How was he even conscious right now. He had to have been screaming, because suddenly his throat felt scarred, too. Sticky, his chest felt sticky. Blood? Must be a lot of it.

The lackeys were all laughing on the other side of the bars. He didn’t care, he just wanted it to stop.

“Let’s go; that was immensely satisfying. And tonight I will sleep well, knowing he’ll be feeling it for a long time still.”

He couldn’t hear the fainting footsteps. Just his own heartbeat, struggling to keep up with the wreck his body was in.

It felt worse than anything he’s ever felt. The only comparison he had was his panic attack after reading his dad’s letter. And horrifyingly, he remembered Dr. Blakk said he was in “a sea of it”. Like, in the deep caverns? And that may have been where his dad went….did his dad have to live through this? And a worse version of this???

Eli lived like that for a while. He tried thinking of happy moments with his dad, with his friends. He wondered where Kord was, what Trixie and Pronto were doing. He never once felt like he got enough air.

Did he sleep? He wasn’t sure. Surely a bunch of time had passed. There was some light outside. Shakily he was up on his feet, leaning on the wall for support, because Dr. Blakk was approaching with another gray food tray.

“Eat up, Shane.”

There was what looked to be a hamburger, wrapped in paper. There was no cup, to his relief.

His headache was hopefully from the lack of food, not the dark water. He hadn’t eaten since morning the previous day. But he narrowed his eyes at the offering. “What is this?”

Blakk looked at him innocently. “Just a toasted meat sandwich.”

The Shane felt awful already. Does he risk real food, to feel better and get strength to escape this place, or should he refuse because there’s somehow another harmful chemical in it?

Eli was standing with a blank face, in so much pain while still trying to make a decision.

The evil doctor shrugged. “Well, the food shouldn’t go to waste! Take it to the other prisoner.”

Shane’s breathing hitched. “Fine, I’ll have it.”

Blakk tsked him. “You should really watch your diet more, Shane.”

If he could kick him in the nuts, he would. But instead, the sandwich was thrown on the ground, and Eli took a bit out of it.

His vision went red, and he was too busy screaming to care about the rest of the burger.

But Dr. Blakk wasn’t done. He held the sandwich in front of the teen’s face, now in his hands on the ground in pain. “Eat some more, now.”

Eli didn’t care anymore. “No, stop it.”

“What was that, Eli?”

His voice was getting hoarse. “Please just stop it!”

Dr. Blakk was all too happy to leave him be, now. And Eli would have been fine with that, if he didn’t feel like he was about to die for the whole day. Somehow, it was much harder to think of his duties as a Shane when his body was just screaming at him to make it stop.

For a little moment, he wanted to die, hope of rescue forgotten.

*

Next time he felt better enough to check, there was another sunrise. It had been 3 days since eating anything…well, eating anything good.

Eli was doing quite badly. He had taken his shirt off, feeling too hot; though there was blood under it, too. Seems like they got his upper right arm, his blaster arm. It was like having a fever and a panic attack and no bone strength to help either get better. His mind was murky, unable to focus on anything.

His captors were here again. He didn’t realize till one of them tossed a coin to his face, and he audibly winced. He didn’t look to see them.

“Want some more water, Eli?”

It was so hard to speak, whispering felt like screaming. “No, get…away from me.”

The gate clicked open. Dr Blakk was besides his face, holding another rancid, fucking atrocious cup. “But it really is water this time. We don’t want you dead, you know.”

Shaking, he dragged himself away from the older man as far as he could. “No.”

“Did your father teach you no manners?”

“No, please no, stop it please.” Eli knew he was starting to lose it, and he was starting to really not care.

“Ha! I wish your father could see you now, to know how much he failed Slugterra - and his own little son. And you are even more pathetic than he was.”

The man threw the cup’s contents on the floor. While he trotted away, Eli was dragging himself away from every speck of the floor coated in red. It’s very possible that both his lungs weren’t working (read: on fire), and he was panicking.

*

A couple hours later, if he had been more attentive, he would’ve heard the alarms blaring, and quick footsteps flying past his cell.

Then, the power going out on the bars. This he knew because 1) it was a brief reprieve on his eyes and 2) it meant they were back.

“Get away from me!”

“Eli…”

His ears hurt so much, he didn’t care what they were saying. “Stop, just stop.”

“Trixie, we have to go before they regroup.”

“Eli, it’s us, it's your friends, can you stand up?”

They sounded really worried. Wait, it wasn’t Blakk. He slowly opened his eyes, and saw 3 incredibly sober and concerned faces in from of him. On top of-

“Get off the water!” He tried getting up and stumbled. “Get the hell away from the red on the ground.”

Kord, obviously looking like he was trying to hold back tears, instead took Eli’s arm that was reaching for the wall’s support and he became his support instead. The Shane wondered how bad he had to look for them to seem this somber. “It’s just slippery, we’re going to get away from it now.”

He seems panicked at that suggestion. “But the water-”

Kord lifted the human off the ground, and carried him out like that through the rest of the building.

In the haze, he felt a familiar weight on his shoulder. He winced at the new pressure, and it flopped off.

It was brighter outside - Eli covered his burning eyes with his hands, which, like the rest of him, was still immensely painful to move…and not move. Eli’s whole life just revolved around that illness, and his desperation for it to end.

Slugs were fired, but soon, he was on the back of Trixie’s mecha, biting his lip to not cry out.

He didn’t hear any of them talk on the ride to the hideout.

*

When they arrived, Eli was still very, very out of it.

The three of them encircled Eli, still on Trixie’s mecha. His eyes were closed, scrunched up. The group had never seen him look this closed off and fearful.

Kord was lost for words, and had a quick conversation with his eyes to Trix.

Trixie kept her voice low. “Eli. Eli, can you hear us.”

A slow nod. Okay, we can work with this.

“You're hurt.” It was a statement, not a question. “What hurts? We can help. Or find a doctor.”

Eli slowly shook his head. Then, with apparently great effort, he spoke. “Dark water.”

That snapped Kord out of his daze. “The guards were talking about that stuff when they passed my cell…”

Pronto narrowed his eyes. “How so?”

His blood ran cold, finally getting it. “Gossiping about its effects when drank.”

Trixie gasped, loosing her footing for a second. Then turned to Eli, worry now tenfold. “Eli. That dark water on the floor. Did you drink that?”

A nod.

“...E, I'm going to carry you to bed.” Kord then secured Eli under his arms and carried him to his room, around all his newly rescued slugs. Burpy wouldn't leave his side for a single second, holding little hands with Doc around the kid they wish they protected better.

*

Eli never went to sleep; the dark water shut off that part of his brain. But there were lulls in how much he sensed around him, and it took him a while to get out of the initial haze he came to when back on a soft, comforting mattress. His mattress, at home, in the hideout, which felt safe. Well, normally.

His brain rebooted to all his friends around the bed, two in chairs and Kord on the floor. Burpy was awake, leaning against the pillow his own face was laying on, just like they did every night since he was 10. Doc was near his palm, faintly glowing, a frown on the little face.

Everything hurt, but worryingly, he was getting used to it.

Trix noticed him awake first. She bounced up. “E!” The other two perked up at her movements.

She flung to his side and tried to hug him. But before she could, Eli jumped back. His eyes were open, and they looked scared.

So she backed away. “...hey, welcome back.”

He tried to breathe. It was so shallow. He spoke so slowly that, in another time, the speed would have annoyed him. “Blakk. Told me worst is over. And effects in general would last a month.”

Kord came over. Way too much emotion in his words, he said, “I'm sorry.”

Eli tried his best to physically react; he looked sadly at the cave troll. “You didn't ask for this.”

“I let you be pulled into another cell, and all that happened to me was no food. You…” his best friend had tears in his eyes.

And Eli had been crying non-stop. “It’ll be okay, Kord.” Usually he would crack a smile; he didn't have the energy, and that broke his heart. "Knew we'd get hurt at some point, right?"

I'm glad it was just me.

This time, Eli didn't pull away as they all hugged together. And let themselves cry over such a simple mission going so, so wrong.

*

Eli was stuck sick for a week. Didn't sleep, or eat, much. Couldn't talk for long. “Effects of that water,” Eli explained.

But it had been 7 days without food or water, and Kord refused to let it go 8.

He lightly tapped on the door, knowing Eli was still sensitive to sound. “E? Coming in.”

He entered the room, and as was usual, the Shane was in bed, just there, his slugs crowding him. Burpy served as his primary nurse, it seemed, yelling for more cold towels, more or less bed sheets, and keeping the 2-legged creatures away from the boy when his symptoms were worse. Right now, from Burpy’s neutral expression, Kord had been cleared for entry.

“Here’s some water?”

Eli snapped up and curled into a ball. His eyes were wild, and it took him a second to focus on Kord’s face and calm down. His breathing only got harsher. “No, thank you.”

His voice broke. “Sorry.”

Kord placed the cup on the ground, out of view, and gave E the biggest hug he could.

“I got you, I got you.”

And he was crying again, but now he was also speaking. “He wanted me alive. So I knew it wouldn't kill me.” Kord’s best friend sounded really frantic, now. And apologetic, even though it was himself that was just victimized. And his arms, strong despite the pain and his age, tightened around the Cave Troll. “They kept saying if I didn't take it, they're give you enough to kill you. And said a lot of really racist things about you. So I got really mad. I threw the water at Blakk at first. Then he threatened you and I took it and…” He trailed off, more lost than he’s ever been in the underground world.

Kord didn't know how to respond. He just kept Eli safe in his arms, and cursed Blakk. For everything, but especially for bringing his best friend to this. And his bro for his hero complex.

And himself, for getting captured in the first place.

*

Water was now considered a touchy subject in the Shane home. Food was assumed to also be bad to mention. For the next few days, they left a pitcher of water - not a cup - out for Eli, for him to take of his own volition, and when the other’s weren’t present.

Doc, slowly but surely, was doing a great job. It had been a week and a half, and Eli was beginning to move around more, open his eyes with greater resilience to light, and breathe a little more deeply. But the other effects were falling away, too - Pronto had heard his stomach growl on evening, and Eli was looking sleepier by the hour.

Not that the Gang felt any better. They weren’t coping with what happened well. Trixie was head-deep into gaming, and Slugnet articles. Kord, previously having plans to visit his clan this week, cancelled, instead taking the time to maintenance their mechas, their blasters, and any other tech he could fiddle around with. Anything to keep his mind off of it all. Pronto cooked more, trying new recipes, even made some maps with new paths he’s discovered while being involved in Shane business. He knew he was lacking in the somber, comforting department, and didn't want to misstep.

They all knew it was a waiting game. All they could be was emotional support, because they got there way too late, and now their friend had to heal from them not being good enough to save him in time. And Kord was obviously blaming himself for being used as leverage against the Shane, and for not being part of the rescue mission, because he got himself captured, too. The three of them cohabited the living room, most days and nights, so much unspoken in the air yet no one confident enough in how they felt to express it.

And sometimes, they got distress signals. Nothing too bad, but it was weird, riding off to accept a Shane help signal, stars on their gear and mechas, without the Shane who banded them all together in the first place.

*

Apparently, Eli felt sleepy enough (as he should, as he’s gone a very worrying time not resting completely) to fall asleep at 6 pm.

His friends didn’t know this till they heard screams. They were high-pitched, and terrifying, and out of nowhere. Trixie fell off the couch, their attention previously on her screen shoved aggressively back into reality.

“Eli?”, she called out, as loud as she could. She was racing upstairs. “Eli, are you okay? Eli I'm coming up, Eli? Eli!”

Her footsteps weren't as fast as she would have liked. She scrambled to his door and opened it-

And there was Eli, tossing and turning in his sheets, shrieking like a mad man while his slugs were panicking around him. Doc glowed brighter and Burpy went so far as to start some heat on his arm to wake him up, to no effect.

Because, Trixie finally rationalized - he was fully out of it. Were nightmares also a side affect of dark water?

Then he began speaking words.

“I'm not drinking it,” there was sweaty glinting on his forehead, “I'm not doing it. I'm not, i'm not! Stop!”

“Eli…”

“Wait, Kord, what are you - what is - no Kord, Kord no, I'll take it, I'll take it Kord, KORD NO-”

Trixie heard enough - she ran to his side and, as gently but sternly as she could, took his arm.

The Shane woke up in a fighting stance - fists up near his chest - though it would do little to intimidate anyone due to the shaking of his entire body and the fearful tears he was shedding.

Trixie’s own vision was blurring. “E.”

Eli was panting less and less as his eyes fell to the girl. It was unnerving, how she could have never imagined something like this happening, how the Shane could appear younger than he was. Usually it was the opposite; usually he puffed his chest and, while admitting his age, took it in his stride and fought like a well-experienced Shane should.

But he wasn’t a Shane right now, he was Eli.

“H-” coughs, realizing his voice was set back again, “Hi, Trix.”

The silence was hard to manage. She sat down on the side of his bed, not letting go of his arm. Almost asked if he was okay; that would be a dumb question. Instead: “Want to talk about it?”

He was an open book most days; this was not one of those. So he shook his head, mouthing “another time”.

Slowly, she got up, and left him be, trusting his slugs would be a better presence around at the moment.

The bits of quiet crying she heard in the hallway convinced her; their family needed to talk about this, and it better be before Eli goes to sleep again.

Chapter Text

The Hideout wasn’t the most soundproofed structure in Slugterra; Kord had been in the garage, and dropped all his equipment he shined so perfectly the night before unceremoniously on the floor, barely missing his head on the Mecha he was under; hurrying to find out the commotion. Pronto hadn’t been home at all, but instead just outside, where the ground had to be used for his very extensively large maps of each cavern.

Kord found Trixie walking downstairs, previous sounds of fear gone. Kord’s worry doubled at the nervousness in her twitching fingers, and the grim determination in her gaze. “Meeting, now. I'm grabbing Pronto.” She checked over her shoulder to that hallway that housed the hurting Shane. “We need to talk.”

The cave troll tried to close in on himself. “...You’re right. We’ve been putting this off too much, we don’t have more time.”

Trixie did quick work grabbing Pronto from his work, and they were around their planning table, snacks in the middle that no one was gunning for anytime soon.

The girl started. “We should have broken you both out sooner.”

Kord shook his head. “Trix, it was not that simple-”

“We should have just dug a hole into the citadel and worked our way from there. Planning our route was dumb, all we needed was your slugs and blasters and then we could have fought our way out.”

“Against Blakk himself?” Kord whistled. “No, you only had two fighters. You had to be stealthy, which requires knowing the hallways, splitting up, and hacking into cameras to see where we all were. You did the right move.”

“But if we got there sooner-”

Kord put a hand on her shoulder to stop that thought. “-then maybe you could have been scooped up too, and then Eli would have stayed in there longer as we planned a break out.”

Kord’s voice lowered. “No, I could have just fought back, to stay with Eli, or even take some of that dark water-”

She slightly slapped his wrist. “Kord! No, you were in the dark as much as we were on the outside. You did your best.”

“And so did you, then.” He folded his arms together. “...I don’t think the guilt is going away any time soon.”

Internally, she agreed. “But it will leave eventually.” She turned to the Moll. “Anything to add?”

Pronto, for all his constant attempted humor, held himself seriously. “There’s no use looking back on what we could have done, just what we have to do now.”

Trixie had a small smile. “Yeah, just before Eli goes to sleep again.”

Kord took a step back. “Was that…a nightmare, before?”

Trixie’s silence said it all.

“Floppers.”

*

Back in the cell, not on the ground, leaning on the wall. The floor had dark water. So he stayed away from that.

But the wall was red, now. His chest, with no shirt, was also red. Dark water? Blood? Did it even matter?

“Good morning, Eli Shane.”

His breath stopped. He closed his eyes and assumed everything was red.

He heard movement, and liquid splashing around a cup.

He was shaking, sliding down the wall. “No.”

He could feel Dr. Blakk’s grin. “Oh, so you want Kord to have some instead?”

“No! That’s- not right either…”

Out of nowhere, he was way too close to the boy’s face, the cup pressed to his red chest. His gray face was vicious, staring into Eli’s soul. “That’s not how you were thinking after you drank this, is it? We’re all selfish, little Eli. Running from that is pointless." He pressed the cup up to the boy's lips. "Your father failed you. You’re not a Shane. You’re just a victim of my victory!”

“No!”

With a flick of the wrist, the water was dumped on his head; in his hair, dripping down his legs, in his mouth.

He couldn’t breathe. “Get it off, get it off-”

“Okay.”

Everything vanished - now they were in the first cell they were placed in, where-

On the ground was Kord, next to a fallen gray cup, far bigger than his.

He dropped to the floor to check his pulse. “Kord, KORD-”

A shadow outside the bars caught him in his panic. He knew Burpy’s little fire like he did his own reflection. “Burpy, get us out! Kord needs-”

He sobbed, seeing a ghouled Burpy hop into sight. Dr. Blakk was behind him. “You’re glad it’s not you.”

“What have you done?!?” His voice was breaking, he was breaking.

“Sitting around, praying for it all to end, while those you care about fall into my hands. Where is your foolish roundabout solutions? A few drops washed them all away. Poor little Eli, who will follow the family tradition-”

“Eli!”

Arms were shaking him by the shoulders. The cell, he was back in the cell-

His vision cleared. It was Kord, he was pale, and speaking to the Shane.

“Bro wake up, bro come on, I’m sorry we let you fall asleep-”

“K-Kord?” Eli was having a bad moment, the ones they’ve been sickeningly used to in the past while, but nightmares were new. “You’re alright, you’re here-”

The big guy opened his arms, and the young Shane bolted into them quick. His crying wasn’t muffled too much by his blue arms.

It was too much, it was all too much. He needed to get better. Going on two painful weeks of inaction was inexcusable. Two weeks of this brokenness was killing him.

They needed to get better, and tear off the bandaid so they could examine the wound. And that was alright, as long as Kord kept hugging him, proving to him every second that the real nightmare already ended.

*

Later, when they were still there and Eli ran out of tears, the three of them stayed in his room. Kord hadn’t budged, and Eli just turned his head to be able to speak. “W-” more coughing, he really was starting to be thirsty again. “We gotta talk now, don’t we.”

“...Yeah,” Trixie delivered softly. “Might make the nightmares better, or at least help us deal with…”

Eli shut his eyes. “Yeah. I should tell you all what exactly happened.”

Pronto rolled his own. “Nonsense, just tell us what’s necessary.”

He felt Kord nod above his head. “Yeah, this is some heavy stuff. It doesn’t all have to come out now. I…told them the little you told me, just because it helped identify some stuff to care for ya.” He sounded really unsure of that decision, now.

Eli looked up, faintly smiling. “Thank you, that helps a lot.”

Kord smiled back shyly. “Okay.”

Eli steeled his teeth. “So we got split up. He kinda slugged me a little bit with hop rocks, but that wasn’t nearly the worst of it.” He went to pet Joules and Doc. “This little champ fixed the whole hurt-organs thing when we got out.”

He sighed. “Then the water stuff happened-”

“They kept saying if I didn't take it, they'd give you enough to kill you. And said a lot of really racist things about you. So I got really mad. I threw the water at Blakk at first. Then he threatened you and I took it…”

“-and he slugged me again…hurts alot more when everything’s on fire….screamed a lot. Though Blakk mentioned that a ‘whole sea of it’ feels worse, so…” He despised the quiver in his tone.

Trixie was grimly rubbing her thumb on her chin. “So that’s what happens when you fall into the Deep Caverns…” She audibly gasped. “Oh Eli, I’m so sorry.”

He winced. “It’s…fine.” He quickly kept going. “Then morning two. Made me eat a hamburger with the stuff in it, saying he’d take it to Kord if I didn’t. So I did.”

He wondered with no hilarity whether they knew what a hamburger was. Then he made a face; one that cued the others he was masking all that happened here.

“You don’t need to-”

“I begged him to make it stop.” Something in the fifteen year old’s heart just demanded to bulldoze those words out, and his face went red, immediately regretting it.

The silence was deafening. He was scurrying to scan the three of them for their reactions. There were none. The battle-prone part of him that acted on instinct was in charge, and he was never one to keep secrets. Incredibly, he kept talking, even though it felt wrong. It all was so wrong.

“And a part of me wanted to die. And-” his breathing got heavier, and made a fist. Burpy nuzzled into his neck. “The rest of my stay was just Dr. Blakk taunting me with that shit, and about me failing as a Shane. And I-” He kept avoiding Kord’s apologetic face. He rushed out, “He was right because it hurt so bad I regretted taking it for you.”

The group turned to Kord.

The guy was silent for a few seconds, trying to find the right way to phrase this. Eli’s terrified, shaking form reminded him of small trolls, worried for punishment for something terrible they’ve done. What did the old trolls do for them?

Told stories about them doing the same. And how it all turned out okay.

He forced himself to breathe deeply. “You know, Eli…life wasn’t too great before you gave me this jacket.”

The adolescent cave troll sat a little straighter, attempting to appear braver than he was. “I wanted to sling slugs in a world without a Shane. I’m cave troll, humans see my blue muscles and just decide to not approach me. It hurt a bit. I thought about going back to where I grew up many times, actually. And when it felt the worst…” His eyes narrowed, as if looking far away. “I hated myself for wanting to not be an engineer. I even hated what I am.” He laughed nervously. “But then I met you all, and the Shane badge gets me places, and I get to do what I love, I have a purpose! And suddenly, my thoughts are a lot more positive. Eli.”

At the call, Eli finally met Kord’s face. “When we’re hurting, it’s very easy to regret everything, to hate how we got there. Do you feel the same now, as you did in that cell?”

The Shane shook his head viscously.

Kord smiled. “Then don’t sweat it. What mattered was that first…really reckless decision to protect me in the first place.”

The Shane physically grappled with this information. “Kord…” He leaned against his arms again. “You’re way too hard on yourself. You should take your advice.”

His brows scrunched up. “What do you mean?”

Eli chuckled. “You’re not your worst moments, either. The Shane Gang wouldn’t be so strong without you here. One botched intel mission isn’t going to change that.”

Kord didn’t respond, but Eli felt him relax a bit, and accepted that.

Then Eli turned to Trixie and Pronto. “And no, I don’t regret it now, and I’d do it again.” There was an edge to his voice, one with a hidden message attached: None of you have to go through that. Never.

Pronto scoffed. “Shane business isn’t painless, young Shane. We accepted that long ago.”

Trix exhaled loudly. “We’re fighting for all of Slugterra, it’s worth the risk. We’re just sorry you spent so long there.”

Eli didn’t buy it. “Three days is not long at all, not against Dr. Blakk. Nothing permanent happened and that’s all that matters.”

No one responded immediately. The air felt exposed, and hard to breathe fully, but it felt leagues better than the pent up emotions that were floating around before.

Trixie just thought of one more thing. “...You don’t feel the whole wanting to die thing now, right?”

Eli shuddered. “Oh it hurts like hell, but no. That fell off like a week ago. I didn’t even know pain could get that bad.”

Trixie smiled in relief.

Kord patted Eli’s head. “And if I’m so strong, you gotta trust me to handle myself. If your treatment is that bad, deflect some of the hurt to me, okay bud? If we struggle, we struggle together.”

Eli’s eyes wandered around, hesitant to agree. “...I’d consider it.”

That seemed like the best response he was going to get, so Kord nodded.

*

It wasn’t easy, but the days after were easier to live through. Eli was mostly bedridden, but the Gang decided to sleep in the living room together now, so Eli had someone there when he awoke. The nightmares stopped waking him up in a panic after another week; and around that time, Eli cleared himself to be back on distress calls. The Gang without him had been doing damage control; it was time to be an active challenger to his abuser’s disgusting plans for their home.

They took precautions. They avoided water caverns; they came up with a code word for dark water, so Eli could block out his recent trauma better while out on the field in time-sensitive operations. Plus, it was so stupid - the toxic substance, for all its evilness, deserved to be ridiculed, and its name constantly spat on. Taking the surface-drink made for football players and adding the word dark to the front made Eli laugh hysterically, and they weren’t going back after that.

"So that's why I stopped playing soccer. My uncle forced me to chug Gatorade that whole afternoon."

Pronto was curious. "Gatorade?"

"Oh....its like water with these chemicals in it to keep you energized. Came in a lot of different colors."

Eli paused for a second, face fully blank. Then he giggled, slowly and unstoppable.

Trixie was lost. "Eli? What-"

"Darkonade." the giggles got louder.

"What?" Kord was nervously laughing with him.

"Gatorade comes in red, too. It's like that other stuff. Put the two together a-and" Ei was laughing like a maniac.

Normally the gang would be off-put and/or concerned, but they hadn't seen the Shane this joyful and stupid since before Blakk captured him.

They all nodded. "Darkorade."

What was harder, was meeting Dr. Blakk again.

He, with his trusted blaster, Maurice and Nacho and the other Blakk Inc. associates behind him, on a train the Gang was trying to overtake. The face that he begged to stop hurting him.

No, he was a Shane. He knew because Dr. Blakk went that far to try and defeat him. Dr. Blakk spending his precious supply of Darkonade on just a guy like him? That was pitiful, really.

So he held his head high when the man laughed at him from across the tracks, waiting patiently for Thaddius to stop wasting oxygen. “It's really funny, how you had all the power you wanted, and you still can't stop me.”

The shock that melted that obnoxious smirk off his face make Eli sleep soundly for the first time in a month.

*

Eli Shane was great at taunting bad guys with newly gained energy and passion. He was not great at taking care of himself without such a drive, though. He's a Shane already used to going without when on the road - Blakk’s citadel only gave him more reasons to not spend much time in their kitchen area.

His muscle stayed, but he was definitely thinner. Whether a direct consequence of Darkonade or not, he complained of headaches and his stomach growled frequently.

He tried drinking clear drinks, like water, and from pitchers, rather than cups; though that made the little amount that he actually ended up drinking even more obvious to his friends. He ate cold food, and only food that he made himself. Checked every ingredient. And avoided the color red in his meals (and, the Gang learned the hard way, SO MUCH food was red).

One day, inspired by the Darkonade, Pronto brought home food dye. Eli gave him a hug. And he laughed - he was doing that more and more. Pronto continued to teach Eli to cook, with Kord and Pronto encouraging them on the sidelines. Every night, they did a drinking game (Eli began preferring his pitcher water dyed green, and eventually they all had their standard colors), where they would throw their little slugs on the table for them to fight in their small forms, and whoever’s slugs lost had to take a sip.

Burpy, the smartass, convinced Eli’s backpack squad to lose every time.

He gained back weight within a month and a half; he made a full recovery. The scar won’t fade completely, but it wouldn’t be a major deal anymore; it collected with all the other little features and experiences that made Eli, Eli. They all were perfectly fine with that ending.

And then, life continued.

And they were all dreading the explanation Junjie was definitely going to need when Darkonade popped up in conversation.

Chapter Text

The scary thing about Junjie was that, in the shadow of Twist’s previous betrayal, and Eli’s quirks, their daily routines felt like guarded secrets at the Clubhouse. The darkorade jokes, the food coloring, getting Eli to lose in every drinking game they came up with, the pitcher that conveniently was used to hold the regular cups on their campsites - those were all not only good humor, but also weirdly personal mechanisms for them all to deal with Eli and Kord’s captivity from Dr. Blakk. They hadn’t realized, till Junjie first saw the Hideout from a distance, how private those parts of their collective lifestyle had become. They were quite open people - a loving environment fosters that well, despite their respective troubled pasts - but now Junjie, with nowhere else to stay, took the room just past Eli’s, and their Shane Gang secrets were about to be discovered by someone who wasn’t present for the events that created them. Without being there to see the context, would Junjie be off-put by them? And the slinger (not the man, they learned quickly) already had some baggage to process; they didn’t want to saddle them with more so soon, either. They were at a loss for how to act.

That first night, Eli hadn’t eaten at dinner, and the pitcher had been left in its travel bag. He wanted to open his house to the foreign slinger, for the only fellow Goon survivor he knew, but that didn’t mean he wanted to explain his whole life story right away. It was illogical, but it wasn't like he was doing anything super unhealthy - it was just another skipped meal, Eli's mind supplied.

So Eli just had a lot of breakfast to make up for it. See, everything was fine!

The two mind-control victims exchange experiences that next day, which despite the newness of that mental affliction, was therapeutic to share with Junjie. If anything, he was glad the ice was broken with something bad they could easily relate with each other about. And importantly, over a late lunch - Eli, unsure at first, quickly got used to eating in the other protector's presence. Junjie was holding back, too, but Eli saw some of himself in them; he didn't want them to stay pleasant strangers, not after such a hard shared experience. If nothing else, they were an ally he would gain faith in.

An unspoken agreement between the Shane family came about, after that day. Don’t hold anything back, but don’t offer explanations for questions never asked, either. How long was Junjie to stay? They had no clue. But the start of their stay was actually a nice change of pace; they liked new blood around to change things up, after getting over the initial alterations to the group dynamic. The Gang, with Eli’s eagerness, were accepting him more and more in their Shane home.

Eli’s nightmares were mostly silent - painted red, in boxed cells, with the feeling of dying and a fear for a ghouled man with a cup in hand. They were less often, and he had his slugs to wake him, or when he jumped up abruptly, they were there to calm him down. Usually, Trixie (and sometimes Kord, the house’s Player 2) would still be up from playing video games, and upon Eli’s slugs seeking them out, or Eli’s noise from the dreams, they'd be there for him. Pronto would be awoken and they would have a little slumber party the rest of the night. Sometimes, if Eli wasn’t feeling super well, he would ask to camp out with them in the living room outright.

It had only flared up more after the Goon. Eli really didn’t appreciate having painful restraints on his bodily autonomy become so common.

So, their sleep rituals didn’t stop with Junjie’s appearance - the first night since the eastern portal they ended up all covered in sleeping bags in front of a tv screen, Junjie and their slugs asked no questions in the morning, and that was that.

But for all their silence, Junjie had just been through the Goon, and who knows what their life was like in the East even before the Emperor. So the Gang kept them in duels, in conversation, even at the table for meal times. Signaling as best they could that they’ve been through some shit too, and this was Junjie’s home too, if they wanted it to be.

*

Eli was about to prep for sleep when he heard a knock on his bedroom door, and a little creak from the handle being turned.

“E? You okay?” It was Kord, speaking like he usually did when Eli’s dreams went south again.

The leader popped out of his closet to greet the Cave Troll, confused. “Yeah, why? Did you hear something?”

Kord kept his sincerity, but now there was also doubt. “Yeah, just a few bangs. Did you hit the hay early today?”

As Eli shook his head, Kord really did a double-take. “Then what was that noise?”

“Not Pronto, he’s cooking….creatively….downstairs.” Eli kept thinking. “And Trixie-”

“Level 63 is hard to beat in that game, she’s still down there.” Kord confirmed. “Which leaves-”

Eli snapped his fingers. “Junjie! They sleep early to do their whole thing in the morning.”

He stepped back and put his sleep clothes back on his bed. He had a job to do. “You go give moral support to Trixie, I got this.”

Kord looked at Shane questioningly, and Eli laughed. “I don’t think Junjie likes being crowded if there’s no reason to be. Besides, if something’s wrong,” Eli cast his eyes to the floor, “I’d like to provide the support for once. I'm supposed to be the supportive leader here, right?”

Kord brightened a bit. “Okay, if I don’t see you again tonight I’ll be sure to wrestle the story out of you at breakfast.”

“Aren’t the Ford’s new mecha upgrades being shipped here tomorrow morning?”

“At 11am exactly, and I expect to be able to get plenty of bro time with you before I head into a days-long project.”

The other guy grinned. “Cool!”

*

He heard what Kord was concerned about when he entered the hallway. They weren’t loud, but pretty frequent; shuffling and wood creaks and other miscellaneous sounds.

Eli, composing himself to expect anything, raised a weak fist and knocked steadily on the guest room door. “Junjie?” He called. “It’s Eli, everything okay in there?”

No response at first, but the noise did stop. He tried again. “Need any help at all?”

Finally, their voice, more rough than usual, strained to be loud enough to hear. “Hello, sorry about that. That won’t happen again.”

Eli side-glanced to Burpy on his shoulder. “You alright? You know…” He paused to consider his next action carefully. “There’s still some light outside. Wanna see the canyon?”

Some small footsteps later, a tired Junjie appeared in the opened doorway, blinking away and petting Joo-Joo. “...I wouldn’t like to keep you from your rest, Eli.”

Eli was as confident as ever, using his hands to talk. “Who needs that stuff anyway?” I didn’t for weeks, and look how well I turned out! “

Besides, I’ve been wanting an excuse to ride Burpy again.” The Infernus lit a flame and nodded wildly in support. Joo-Joo was a bit more silent, but gave their slinger a smile and nodded to the other pair.

“...Give me a minute, I’d be honored to see more of your residence.”

*

Ten minutes later, they walked out into Slugterra’s floral version of twilight, a not uncomfortable quiet between the two slingers and two fire slugs. Soon, they reached the edge of their hideout’s bridge, and Eli grinned, blaster up.

Junjie silently loaded up Joo-Joo and fired. Eli nervously chuckled and quickly fired his own companion, and with two leaps, they were off to the ground floor of the cavern.

The mushrooms were glowing brighter in this section of forest, and the breeze - so rare to enjoy, now, in the world without wind - through the trees was something Eli would never be bored of.

“It’s beautiful,” he heard Junjie mummer. The fellow fifteen year old looked more alive already. Their face was serene as their eyes wandered around the leaves, the bushes, and the few lights that illuminated their path.

A few meditative minutes in, the infernouses gave looks to their riders, and Eli and Junjie were hopping off safely. The slugs returned to their other, cuter forms.

“...This cavern is quite nice,” Junjie commented. The two were standing around, and Eli gestured towards a few chairs to the side; it wasn’t uncommon for the Gang to come down here.

“Yeah,” Eli sighed as they sat down, “The past while here has been wonderful!”

Junjie raised an eyebrow. “So…you’re not from this cavern?”

Eli’s debated what to say. “...Yup. I grew up pretty far away from here. But I chose to leave, and I’ve found a lot over here to love.”

The Eastern Champion said nothing in response, just gazed at the plants around them. Their slugs, now returned, were chatting on the side of their chairs.

Then, Junjie put their head down. “It’s all so different.”

Elo kept his face as neutral as possible, but left a little quirk in the corner of his mouth. Junjie took the sign to continue. “I am the last of my ancestor’s descendants. And, Goon control or not, I failed them, and now while they suffer, I am here.”

The Shane didn’t speak till some time passed, not wanting to stop the other. Then: “....I am, too.”

Junjie met Eli’s eyes, and the boy kept talking. “I found a family here. I haven’t failed these Caverns so far. And I don't think you have either! We don't know what exactly happened. Don't drown out your hopes just yet." Shoot, should he have said that? Well, he'd plow on. "But before all that, my dad was the Protector - though over here, we’re known as the Shanes,” he added quickly. “...He became missing in action, and his last action was to send Burpy to give me his Will, basically. And when I became of age, I moved permanently and stepped into the public eye, and here I am, less than a year later? Now the Shane.” He chuckled darkly. “It’s a long story, but I think my dad might be alive, and if he is, he is...suffering, wherever he is.”

“...Yet we are here,” Junjie finished.

Eli’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think they'd want us to be guilty for not being there, though. We deserve to be happy.”

Junjie took a long breathe. “...Before. Was a nightmare, not one about the Goon.” He blinked - this was new. “Like with your father, I don’t know what has happened to the Eastern Caverns now. But I do know what happened to my family…I was there for it.”

Eli’s hitch in breath was too loud for the forest. He guiltily glanced away. “...I’m sorry for talking about all this. I’m supposed to be cheering you up.”

Junjie forced a smile. “...My teacher taught me how talking can help. I may not be jumping with joy, but this isn’t bad either.” They stopped and contemplated something. “...I know I am new, but you freed me from the horrors of the Goon slug last week. You…I noticed you and your friends have been a bit hesitant about certain things, and,” they stared strongly at the boy, “don’t feel like you have to hide things from me. It’s your house; I didn’t expect you all to not have some traditions. My joy and gratefulness at being free from the Goon’s control is not fading anytime soon.”

So they did notice.

And Kord said I could share some hurt, that they could handle it. It sounds like Junjie believes that idea, too.

“I-uh,” Eli was flustered. “We just…we cope with some stuff that’s happened in some weird ways, and it’s a bit unnerving to have someone around able to see it all. Not that you’re bad at all! Oh how do I put this…” Eli decided that, fuck it, it's his trauma and he shouldn’t feel compelled to hide it. He was going to match Junjie's courage. “...I have nightmares, too, about some Shane stuff that’s happened. And my diet is a big thing too…I hope you don’t mind some rules that pop up.” He finished softly.

Junjie suddenly sat up, determined. And took Eli’s hand. “Then, if I must be here, I’m glad to help with the Shane stuff any way I can. And I can’t promise I’ll be perfect, I have my own mind to deal with too…but I can be a friend that can help, Eli.”

Eli’s heart, so used to abandonment and the fear of it, melted a bit at those words. “We’ll get you home, Junjie.”

They smiled with humor. “You can call me Jun, if you like. And I know you will. And,” they emphasized, using Eli’s hand to raise both them up, “if you could find a home here, I probably can, too. Now,” they called up Joo-Joo, “Let’s head to the kitchen. I want to make you all dinner tomorrow to thank you all for accepting me, and it would be a pity if you couldn’t eat it.”

Eli really hoped Junjie wasn't another Twist, he didn't trust his heart could take it. He took back his hand and tried to gesture the way Junjie did before duels, and closed his eyes. "Thank you."

Junjie did it properly. "Here, I'll demonstrate how to do that correctly on the ride up."

"You some kind of teacher?"

"I'm always able to help those in need."

The belly laugh that erupted from Eli felt magical.

*

Gliding back to the upper cavern ground, to the door of the hideout, Eli and Jun were lightly chatting. As Eli was explaining how he won his first ever slug duel using only 3 floppers and Burpy, they reached the kitchen. Trixie and Kord were asleep on the couch, out cold, sharing a large blanket and with 2 controllers laying about at the foot of the couch. Pronto was scrubbing a pot in the sink; his newest recipe was probably in the fridge, ready for tomorrow (a list of used ingredients taped to the side).

“Hello, Junjie! Fancy yourself to some Eartstew?” Not to Eli - he knew Eli needed the recipe before eating anything, and he didn’t feel like reading whatever hellish ingredients the Moll chef thought were digestible right now.

And neither knew what Eartstew was. But Eli was the one comfortable with shooting down the offer. “Thank you for making lunch for tomorrow, Pronto.”

“But of course!”

Junjie stepped up. “We can clean the rest up for you. Eli’s just assisting me understanding this kitchen so I can make something you all like tomorrow for dinner.”

Now, Pronto was not the Shane member most open to new people. But food was the way to his heart; seen by the fire in his Moll eyes. “Oh, really!? Be my guest! Thank you, kind si-slinger of the East!” Good catch, Pronto.

He scurried off for his beauty sleep, and Eli took to the sink to do the final rinse for the pot; glad all its cooked contents were safe in the fridge, or down the drain, already. Then Junjie got to the mission. “So, what do we have in here? From what I’ve seen the past week, our produce isn’t totally different; I could make something I know with what you have.”

Eli ran through their pantry. “We have pasta-”

“Great start, goes with many dishes.”

“-and I think we have some chicken in the freezer.”

Junjie seemed pleased. “Do we have Panko?”

At the Shane’s face, Jun tried to describe it. “Like, crumbs of bread.”

“Oh! Yeah!”

“I could fry it if you had oil….” They didn’t buy their own idea. “But I don’t like fried food too much, actually. I just know how to make it really well.”

“Make something you like too, dude. And we got garlic bread.”

Junjie nodded, even though Eli wasn’t looking, instead trying his best playing drying-rack Tetris.

“Oh, great! I made Teacher and I meat sandwiches all the time-”

They cut themselves off.

Eli had frozen. In a few moments he was moving again, but less carefree than before. “...maybe not…sandwiches with meat, Jun.”

Junjie was examining the cabinets, not really using his vision. They had been avoiding his diet, but was that the best method here?

“Maybe-” they moved their head back and forth searching the countertops - “I should know what to avoid first? Write a list?”

The other fighter deflated. “...Yeah, maybe.”

Eli set off to grab a notepad, and then they were back at the little kitchen table. Junjie took the pen and flipped to a blank page.

ELI psyched himself up. Junjie decided to start it, so it could end quicker. “Meat sandwiches are off? But meat’s okay?

Eli seemed distant as he spoke. “Yeah. And try not to make any food…too red.” But then a small grin appeared. “We have plenty of food coloring, though, which could help out with some stuff.”

No red, specifically no meat sandwiches, got it.

“And, uh. Colder things are nice. And I prefer knowing all the ingredients in my food.”

Also noted.

Then they remembered the other part of the meal. “Drinks?”

Eli winced. “Well…I’ve gotten used to water dyed green? And…no small cups for me.”

Junjie kept going. Eli could tell them more if he wanted to. “...Okay. Anything else to know?”

“...” Eli kept opening his mouth and closing it. Jun let him take his time. In a projected, but smaller voice, “and try not to hand me any drinks directly.”

They only nodded. “Will do.”

They turned to the side to get up, but Eli coughed to keep their attention.

“Thank you, Jun.”

The corners of their mouth traveled up. “Just show me where the chicken is.”

Eli clapped his hands, fondly reminding himself that everyone's downstairs at the moment (and Pronto was easily dragged). “I will. And I will also show you the coloring dye; we’re playing a drinking game tonight, and you need your own color. Kord's blue, I'm green, Trixie's yellow, Pronto's white." Eli had grabbed the package from under the sink (odd placement, Jun couldn't stop thinking), and they noticed the red little bottle still unsealed.

"Purple's not taken? How, that's the best one!" And, to make the purple lighter, they could use up that red bottle.

"I like the way you think."

*

So Eli and Junjie bonded over slinging, over being their home’s Protectors by bloodright. Eli’s friends showed them the fun games they played outside to let off some stress and be kids; the Eastern Protector demonstrated how slinging as a skill evolved differently in the other world, and their skill in that art. The result of the Goon's failed invasion had them growing closer, as the days turned into a full week of Junjie’s stay in the Western Caverns.

Then, during Junjie’s showing off during F1 Slugging, the ghouls appeared. And right as the five revved their mechas, the Shadow Clan decided to surprise them, too.

Jun understood the clan; the language has been passed down through Peach Blossom Spring Cavern’s population. His aunt had been quite the scholar on its history. They knew that, as a hard language and one humans couldn’t speak accurately due to their species’s larynx capabilities, not many learned it. So the Gang awaiting a translation made sense.

But Eli had a crown-type piece of metal, and it seemed he could understand the language from that - Junjie was intrigued. But what was even more perplexing was the Clan’s message…about a message.

“A message……from your father.”

“My father?” Wait, his father?!?

“Let’s go, Shane Gang.” He turned his head to look directly at their new comrade with a big smile. Happier than they’ve ever seen him, actually. Probably had the same hope as the rest of them: did this mean his father was alive? “Junjie, you in?”

They matched Eli’s infectious glee. We are here, and maybe this man could be here again, too. “It would be my honor to accompany you.”

Junjie was set to start earning their keep with the Shanes, accompanying them on their route for the Elementals. They were ready to go.

*

After embarrassingly screaming in the shadow clan’s - shadows? Oh, Shadow Walker, they learned - with the rest of the Gang, Junjie quickly figured out (with nearly no assistance) what an Enigmo slug was.

And immediately felt like they were intruding on something very private, when the hologram sparked to life. By everyone else’s conflicted expressions, they knew they were the only one there who wasn’t filled in on what happened to the man.

Junjie didn’t know much about Eli’s father - but from the conversation in the mushroom forest that night, they knew he really loved him. And they saw it now, the pride in what he assumed his son would be: the man loved his son, too, even though he made this so long ago, and didn’t know Eli today.

There was something sad about Eli, even as he was filled with joy seeing a hologram his dad made for him. In the message, he spoke like he knew he wouldn’t be there for the Elementals coming back - was something so dangerous happening back then that he felt the need to plan instructions for his young son in case he died without warning?

“...I am, too.” Yeah, he wasn’t kidding. It also sounds like the old Shane didn’t get to teach Eli much at all, from the looks of Eli’s disappointment whenever his dad assumed they have had adventures together…they weren’t one for too much physical contact, but even Jun wanted to give the guy a hug.

But first, to Undertow Cavern they rode.

*

…where the water had turned a neon, bright, mockingly poignant shade of Red.

Eli Shane averted his focus away from the water, instead questioning why the Dark Bane and the Goon showed up. Those were arguably worse on paper, but easier to keep a level head about at the moment.

His friends noticed the shift in attitude; the joking but sincere leader, keeping a neutral expression, entered full commander mode, even to himself, to keep his well-being in check at the dangerous scene he was overlooking. His jaw was stiff with resolute purpose. But his hands were shaking, despite the discipline, phantomly feeling the red through his blood, through his brain, through every breathe he had to painfully steal from his cell’s ventilation.

His crew knew he would work best with something to do, even the week-old partner, whose overall concern for the boy was simmering all day.

“Eli, we’ll try and retrieve the Air Elemental.” They dodged a nasty looking shot that soared above them. “You need to find and recover the water.”

The Shane only spared a glance. “Only problem: the map says the Elemental’s on that island. And there’s a lot of Dark Bane between the sea and us.” He looked across and found Trixie’s eyes, where he told another story: I’m not leaving you all to fight the Goon and the Dark Bane alone.”

Trix sighed and used their team telepathy to give her own message: Shane’s can get Hurt, Eli. We knew this. “We can handle these guys, Eli. Go!”

Consciously not biting his lip, he spun to Kord. “Kord!” I trust you, you can handle yourself. You got this man. “Give me an exit to the shoreline.”

Kord nodded, shrugging off Eli’s fears with a smirk. “One tunnel,” he loaded his blaster, “coming up.”

Following Junjie’s recommendation, Eli was off, tunneling by hole past the Dark Bane and Goon, and by Burpy over the water to find the water elemental on that island in the distance. Slugs, both healthy and ghouled, being slung at his back.

Jun eyed the hesitance in an obviously good plan, but was too busy slinging to comment fully on it. The whole day’s been full of unexplained phenomena.

And Eli held on tight to Burpy’s side, and Burpy was extremely determined to not let him fall down.

*

Burpy became Eli’s walking torch (and emotional support) heading into the red island on foot. He hated how familiar the red walls were to his dreams. Thankfully, the walls weren’t closing in on him, and Burpy was alive and well, chirping encouragingly at him. The Shane gave him a defiant smile.

Growls and bubbles were heard across the high walls.

“They should be in here somewhere.” As they entered a smaller cave of the island, his voice echoed hauntingly.

They found the bubbles. A hand - no, a claw, a huge claw - came rushing out, spewing Darkonade everywhere around it. Before stopping himself, Eli jumped back and shrieked.

“Oh, he’s here all right. And he makes such a fine Ghoul!”

No, no it can’t be. But the horror didn’t fade when he forced himself to rationalize it - the voice was deeper, and more throaty, but it was definitely, even in a bigger body and different clothes…

“No, Dr. Blakk?!?” The question was spoken with rage, ignoring the huge man’s laughs he knew too well from many nights previous. “But, how did you-”

Blakk’s sharp teeth cut him off. “My trip to the Deep Caverns was…Invigorating!”

Eli wasn’t stepping back fast enough. The dark-powered human - was he even still human? - threw his wrist out to the young teen, and him and Burpy were thrown dozens of feet away. Farther than a cell would let him, his mind unhelpfully thought.

Blakk stepped into the poisonous light. “Quite Invigorating, indeed!” And Eli started appreciating the distance between them more and more.

A pair of Ghoul-Packs, at least one Gattler, and a huge chest of muscle was facing down the Shane with such power and confidence, and Eli’s grip on reality was starting to blur. Was this all just another nightmare? Surely it was. He wasn’t trapped here, helpless, waiting for the pain to end, in reality. His pain ended long ago. The nightmare was over. Him and Kord were rescued. They won!

He shakily got up, not liking how his foot twanged from where it was smacked before, as the man kept doing what he loved; monologuing to Eli Shane. “How long I’ve waited for this moment.” Eli was pointing his blaster, but still retreating away backwards. Trying to keep panic away. “Without the Elemental slugs, the 99 caverns will tear themselves apart!”

Eli blasted his rammstone. In glee, Dr. Blakk just puffed out his chest to knock out his best punching slug.

And Ghouled him. But not with dark water, with…dark energy? Like the Goon did.

Could he do that to Burpy? And could Blakk have another way, now, to inject that evil into him?

The glint in Thaddius’s eyes made him deflate, reaching out his arm to his friend who just got ghouled. “No…”

With no warning, his own rammstone was forced to fire onto their own slinger, slamming Eli to the edge of the water.

Pulling himself up, there was a Gattler, point blank.

Like the cell, only now, there was no ground to land on, and no time for his friends to arrive to save him.

For one split second, his eyes were full of fear. Of more dark water, red like the hurt in his veins that took weeks to heal; that would make him falling a downright horrific way to die. Of the idea that this man got to hurt him this bad, and instead of beating him, he succumbed to his stupid technology and sadism. Like his dad did years ago, probably.

He decided not to look. He forced his head right, curled in on himself, and shut his eyes to the red water pouring out of the once beautiful cavern he was sworn to protect.

Tried to think of his dad coming back home those days before the letter, to the Gang in the living room, hugging and telling each other everything would be okay. To himself being proud, that first night he didn’t wake up with tears in his eyes - unlike now, where the tears were threatening to hang on his cheeks during his last stand, the one people would most likely remember him by. To the feeling of no pain in his joints, his lungs, his blaster arm, and his mind, which had only been recently returned to him. To how the Shane legacy would carry on in his Shane Gang. To an imagined future where Trixie and Kord and Pronto and Junjie and many others would complete the peace his bloodline died for. For Junjie to be able to save their home without him. To his allies solving all the problems in Slugterra that he and his father never addressed, that matched the Surface’s almost too well; Kord not needing a star to be a slinger, Trixie not needing to be smart to be respected, Jun and everyone who’s ever been hurt and abandoned being able to find a home to belong in, to spill their secrets to.

For the Shane hideout to stay a home to belong to. Because he would no longer be here to love Slugterra himself.

“No.”

Or he wouldn’t be here, if Dr. Blakk wasn’t a torture enthusiast.

Eli snapped back to terrified life when the man held him up by one hand, squeezing tight till his insides burned, bringing the much smaller Shane up till hovering right below Blakk’s chin. He was grunting, trying to break free.

“As tempting as it is to finish this now,” He swayed the boy around. “You are a fun victim to have, always have been.” He was getting ready to pitch the boy away, and Eli couldn’t do anything about it. “The Goon and I have bigger plans for you.”

He reacted loudly as he was thrown across the water into another bit of land, slammed into a wall. Way too close to memory. Though, he guessed this was another memory to have, too.

Sitting, hurt all over, he panicked over what that plan of theirs would entail. But he was his father's son. His fear wouldn’t stop him from defeating the man who hurt so many people, especially not after the last time they met - where the Shane Gang had already defeated him.

“And when’s the last time your plans actually worked? Maybe you didn’t want to fail to kill me again.” Eli tried to project with strength.

But the man did not appear as defeated as he should have, not even sparing a glance till on the march to the outer part of the island. His boots' heavy steps were activating Eli’s fight or flight response more with every second. “As we take the Elementals one by one, I want you to see that everything you love, every degenerate friend, every weak slug!” Eli scanned Blakk, treating every word like another Gattler to the face, “Will be turned to ash before your eyes, from the cell I’ve confined you in! And you look back”, he snarled, “and wish it had all ended here!”

In victorious fashion, he spread his arms, then fired the next slug in that Gattler - originally positioned to kill the last Shane - into the Island’s ceiling.

Eli, breathing already starting to gain acceleration, was red-faced as he propelled himself from the walls and ran towards the laughing psychopath. Not far, however, since the rocks quickly destroyed the path his enemy had used to escape.

Escape. Seems like both of them had to do that constantly nowadays.

Everything went dark, surrounded by newly fallen rocks. Burpy lit his an arm on fire in haste, worryingly getting closer to the Shane’s neck to hurriedly cuddle with the slinger.

“Of course he wouldn’t let me die,” he whispered to his oldest friend, letting for just a moment the anxiety seep into his throat. He’s never felt this ungrounded in the field. He wanted to go home, and forget that he wasn’t invincible.

Anger. He was angry at the weak feeling in his chest, at the suffering he experienced even today that let that bitch feel so happy and successful. “Blakk! How does he know about the Elementals?”

He loathed how much the bad guy knew about him. He remembers the fight for the caverns, Eli talking to resistance groups and the Shadow Clan; he left the intel-gathering to his team, especially the missions to research Blakk’s darkonade drilling. Even in the citadel fight, he kept the talking with Blakk to a minimum, not even hearing the quipps about his imprisonment too well (no doubt Blakk definitely made those, this is Blakk we’re talking about) due to just how far away they had been in those cursed hallways and rooms. But it was one-on-one, in an isolated island, with Blakk having the clear upper hand. Eli hadn’t been weak-willed, but did anything like that even matter anymore, when he’s pleaded with the man just a few months prior?

The only reason he was alive was Blakk’s power-fueled soul, refusing to let Eli out of his plans for world destruction.

Eli never wanted to be that left for dead ever again. And he wouldn’t be, not next time.

Eli built back his courage and let Burpy jump into his hand, so he could speak his promise to himself and his longest-held companion out loud. “Well, I’m not going back there, you can count on that.” Burpy smiled and nodded, and then it was time to leave this place and rescue the Elementals.

*

The Gang noticed the cave-in, red smoke pouring out of the little land mass in droves, even from a distance.

Kord was worried. “We gotta get over there and help him!”

But Junjie noticed a muscular man coming out of the dark water - which was way too freakish to even process right now - that was grinning maliciously to the Dark Bane. He wasn’t Dark Bane, they didn’t think…they needed to be filled in on who all these people were if they wanted him to fight effectively, damn it. “Once we deal with that!”

Kord paled. “Dr. Blakk?

Trixie looked so furious they would have stepped back if there was enough cover for such room. Even Pronto seemed mad, reloading his blaster with a large pop. “He seems to have been…working out?” The joke did not stun the new paranoia in the cave troll, whose head was swishing around nervously.

“Wait, the Blakk and the Goon? Together?!?” The girl was confused, too, and livid.

“And he just came from the Island, with Eli…” Kord was disturbed. Not knowing why was becoming very annoying.

“Trixie,” the eastern champion whispered loudly. “Can you tell me what’s happening?”

“It’s…on the road, okay? With Eli. This is the guy that made Ghouls over here, and in defeating him…a lot happened.” They let their concern show as she was speaking, and her eyes refused to meet theirs again.

It was unnerving enough to accept ignorance for the time being. And she took their silence as their temporary truce on the matter.

Without a care for his enemies overhearing, the large man’s words to the Goon boomed across the shore.

“And the Shane? I can sense he’s still alive! Why didn’t you finish him?”

“After all he’s done to me. I want him to suffer. AGAIN. He hasn’t, not nearly enough. Ending him now would be too merciful.”

He sounded…way too much like the Emperor to Jun’s liking.

“You’re a fool! You should have ended this while you had the chance. Quick! To the next Elemental!”

Then they were racing off, away from the battle. Cowards! Jun admitted to being shy about themselves, but they couldn’t conceal their gritted teeth to the team. Their whole life had been trained to be a warrior for justice; their foes playing a hit-and-run game was infuriating!

The Goon had always been ideologically evil; wanting to hurt people all for the sake of the slugs. Like how the Shadow Clan were, only not, because the Shadow Clan were perfectly fine with humans and cave trolls (and mullanoids, they assumed, in the West) co-existing as long as they didn’t hurt the slugs. The Goon used a solid cause - one that Eli in particular was clearly very invested in - and used it for his own personal gain, which is an unforgivable contradiction.

But their Dr. Blakk was like the Emperor; wanting to hurt for the sake of it, and to keep him in power. No contradiction - just evil, forged over many years of unspeakable actions.

But even the Emperor only hurt Junjie because of their family, as the representative of those against his power. Maybe Dr. Blakk had held that same grudge, too. But those words…that was a new type of evil to Junjie. It was hatred on a level that wasn’t bound to an overarching goal for power. It was a hatred that influenced their goals and actions, not the other way around.

The man just really, really despised Eli, to the extent of letting the Shane’s go so he could hurt them more later. To embedding that goal into his alliance’s very foundation! How could one let themselves be so repulsive as to let it get in the way of their battle strategy?

And in these small seconds, the cruel words sunk in. “AGAIN. He hasn’t nearly enough.”

He already got a bit of what he wanted. The sleepovers, the nightmares, the kitchen note they put on the fridge; it was this Dr. Blakk’s fault, wasn’t it? Blakk was Eli’s Emperor, his abuser. The Goon brought that deeper pain to the surface again, like it did Junjie.

They didn’t know what the Dark Bane were, or the real details about Blakk’s deeds in these caverns. But they knew the Goon. It’s the only enemy they did know, in the 99 caverns, where their knowledge could be of some use to their new home. Right now, they were simply running around, firing slugs, not being an active mind in the conflict.

That didn’t feel right, they had to do something.

“They’re splittin!” Kord was gesturing to the Gang. “Okay, now we can concentrate on helping out Eli. Now Junjie-”

They couldn’t hear; they were racing off to follow their foes. Maybe to be a Shane’s friend and save an Elemental. Maybe to be Eli’s friend and give them a piece of their mind. And maybe because they deserved vengeance from the Goon, too. And do something besides sit there and worry about the new comrades, that were so open to them despite all the bad deeds their body had probably done to the East, getting hurt by villains they didn't even know.

So they found the Goon’s host, and instantly remembered the numb horror he had, trapped in their own mind, being able to see so little but still way too much of what was happening outside of the mind prison. They knew that feeling very, very well.

They fired an arachnid and got the Goon - no, the victim slinger’s - attention. “Listen to me. You are not my enemy.” They pointed at the human body being controlled, at the real person trapped there, confused and probably scared. Their eyes were solid and not uncaring. “The Goon controls your mind, as he once did mine. Fight him!”

No change in the Goon or their victim. “He cannot hear you, eastern champion. But I can. I used to think I could never find a host as good as you. But this one is actually better.”

Better - was this slinger from the West pretty famous? Maybe they should bring it up with Eli, maybe he’d know who it could be.

“After all, what kind of slinger can’t even save his home caverns.”

The jab at their gender was secondary to the insult to their honor. Narrowed eyes were filled with rage. At the Goon…but also themself. They felt their explosive feelings exhaust off their cheekbones, replaced with confliction. And they thought to the Shane’s in their Hideout - they both had demons in their closets, but at least they saved their home before, and with less than a year of service. Junjie was under the Teacher’s guidance since they were five years old…and still, nothing good came out of all that effort. They were here.

But the Goon wanted them to think like a failure. They decided that, whether they were one or not, they had to act like a Shane.

They started blasting, and while ready to fire, the Goon made their escape.

Jun was tired. And, with uneasy revelation, they realized they didn’t know now where either Blakk or Eli were.

Setting aside their growing determination to punch the Goon and slug Blakk, they raced back to shore.

*

The Gang was discussing how to get to Eli, when a hole erupted from in front of them. Thankfully it wasn’t one of those portals that keep popping up near their feet; it was Eli Shane, barely managing to get himself out of a regular hole this time.

”Eli! -”

“Blakk is back. Somehow. He’s got the Water Elemental. And he’ll be going after the rest.” His voice was weak and raspy - what happened with Blakk? Eli knew there was no time to waste, but he was still on the ground, dragging himself forward upshore and not standing up. He stopped and just sat on his knees. At the sight of a clear field, combatants fled to the next location, he stopped moving completely, breathing heavily and fists grasping the dirt. He was in Shane mode, but the sight was…petrifying, to his friends gathered around. Kord in particular was very uneasy.

“We know, we saw him!” Trixie confirmed. “He’s working with the Goon-”

Jun heard all this, and was sprinting to join them. “Who has escaped with the Elementals.”

Up close, they saw why the rest of his Gang was a few steps back. Upon further inspection, there eyes were red, they weren’t getting up, and again, Blakk and Eli were alone on that Island. They had to rely on Eli to tell them what happened.

Junjie looked at Trixie, nervously gesturing to Eli. She took a few seconds, then sighed deeply and nodded.

So they held out a hand for the Shane. “Eli,” they began, as they pulled the kid up. Seemed like he was favoring one leg over the other, too… “If I am to help with this mission, I need to know what we are up against.”

Eli just jerked his head up. “On the road. Away from the Darkon-from the Dark Water.” Pronto laughed in the background, for some reason.

Kord perked up. “Bro, we can tell them-”

Kord and Eli made eye contact. Eli's mouth cracked open. "He could have killed me. Should have killed me. But he wanted me alive more than dead."

The family sombered. Eli’s tears had froze the mission, even if just for a minute, for respite.

The Shane found the energy to bounce into the cave trolls arms for a quick hug, then got out and held out his hand to let the Enigmo slug onto it. “I...I got it. I had Burpy! And…I’m glad you’re all okay.” He manually injected himself with some Shane charisma, remembering he now got to see his dad again, at least. “We gotta get to the next one first. Ready to open up that map?”

He would have to be slugged - Pronto graciously volunteered.

But Kord wasn’t waiting to address something later. “Uh, Junjie.” He seemed a little accusatory. “What happened back there, bro? You do realize you bailed and left Eli trapped, right?”

Eli was transfixed on Junjie, then. So that’s why they were running back. And on Kord - of course he wouldn’t like the idea of a potential new member of the crew being so willing to leave Eli behind.

But at the same time, Junjie was proving they cared about Eli, and them all. They came to find the Elementals with them, wanted to know what they were fighting for, and against. They literally came running back to regroup, a frown naturally forming at the state the Shane was in. Besides, Junjie didn’t know the history behind Eli’s solo experiences on the job, they couldn’t possibly know the buttons they were unknowingly pushing on their recently-joined comrades.

Junjie met the question with a sincere smile. “The Goon was escaping with the elemental. I trusted Eli to handle himself, which he did. But...I am sorry, for not being as useful as I should be. And not staying at base.”

That calmed down the Zane. He kept forgetting that Junjie is the Eli of the East, basically - they know the stakes and what they’re capable of as well as the rest of them did.

But Jun soured, and while Pronto’s blaster powered up, whispered to Kord. “Plus, I was…a little angry, at how they were talking about Eli. Made me act carelessly.” The Cave Troll, despite the scare of the past few minutes, grinned, and took the slinger into a side hug. “I was too,” he admitted.

Trixie suddenly took Pronto’s arm away from the trigger. “Wait, what if this is how Blakk is beating us? You said yourself the Goon can get in your head. What if he’s stealing the Elementals locations from you?”

Jun liked how analytical Trixie was; she was a great ally to have. Even so: “I do not think so. Consider that the Goon obtained the first Elemental before your Shadow Clan even told us about the five.”

“Jun’s right, Trix.” Jun couldn’t help but smile wide; he used their nickname! “Besides, it doesn’t work that way. It’s more like…a scar. A reminder of what they did to us.”

Junjie knew now that applied to more than just their shared Goon experience. Junjie gave the Shane a knowing look. I am on your side. And I am your friend, too. .

“Do it.”

*

Mr. Shane - it dawned on Junjie they didn’t know his first name - appeared on the hologram and gave Eli the coded question. “Which were the only teammates of mine I ever brought up to the Surface to meet you?”

Maybe they showed their confusion more than they realized, or maybe this was something more top secret - the Gang immediately jolted, as if something terrible just happened. All sets of eyes landed on the eastern champion, and okay, they looked terrified for seemingly no reason.

And yeah, Junjie had more questions. What was the “Surface”? Was this where Eli mentioned growing up till less than a year ago? And did Eli really not grow up meeting all his dad’s contacts? With all the messages and materials he left, Jun thought surely the father would have given Eli a stronger support system to live on than that, at least knowing allies in case anything went wrong…which it did. Burpy gave him his Will, right? Now that they thought about it, they really trusted no 2-legged being to bring home the news that his father was presumed dead?

They coughed. “What? You all can just…explain it to me later, I guess.”

They glanced around themselves, then grimly nodded, and Eli focused on the question.

Trixie asked about a Tom Por - seriously, they were not gonna be able to explain all this in just one trip - and Eli disputed that possible answer. “Dad never brought anyone home.” Junjie was going to become a conspiracy theorist by the time they saved the Elementals at this rate.

The answer was his slugs - oh yeah, Burpy would have been the older Shane’s slug, too…and nice to know where Eli got so much kindness for slugs from - and they learned the Earth Elemental was in Quartermain Cavern.

The group was about to head to their mechas, till a “Wait just a second, guys” made them pause.

Eli was still staring up to his dad. “Trixie mentioned Tom Por. I know you guys had your differences over the years, but he was a good teammate. How did you two keep it together when you didn’t always get along?”

Kord gagged. “Good teammate? Dana said Will Shane killed her dad after he was spying on Will meeting the Shadow Clan, Eli, what are you on about?”

He staggered like he was wounded. “After like 20 years of being in my dad’s Gang! I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here.” Jun’s jaw would have dropped if they weren’t so concerned with powering through to the important, time-sensitive information…but they were starting to understand why the Shane’s were known for their secrets, this lore is getting ridiculous.

But Eli asking the question was interesting. Was he worried about the Gang not getting along soon? But why? They all seemed very close-knit, and Junjie was starting to be let into the Shane’s business at a pretty normal pace. Maybe it was giving the backstory about everything going on that had the Shane so worried? Eli wasn’t having a great day, but that question made Eli look the most scared Jun had ever seen him. It seems like he’s used to keeping things secret, even if he doesn’t like that habit.

The silence gave way to the hologram’s programmed response: that it’s a hologram and can’t properly interact with our questions. Eli, downtrodden by everything that day, slumped down where he stood.

“All I can tell you is: trust your instincts. You’ll figure it out, Eli, I promise.” Eli didn’t move.

He faded away, and Jun knew the clock was ticking. “To Quartermain, then.”

As if hearing their thoughts, Eli steeled his slugged vision to the eastern champion. “And I hate to dump this all on you, but I think you deserve some context on what you’re fighting for.”

Chapter Text

They got on their mechas and Pronto led the way to Quartermain, which was a pretty far distance away. Doc was on Eli’s left shoulder, making some aches ease up a little. With some decent tracking skill at work, they bolted onto a slightly harder path that would cut down their travel time.

This meant the mechs slowed down for the rocky terrain; slow enough for a conversation.

And there were a few things to talk about. But...at their really troubled expressions, Jun was beginning to doubt whether they should expend more energy when they didn’t have to. Sure, they were annoyed and a bit humiliated at mostly being helpless. But would they really be helping by reminding their new friends of times better left in the past, right before a battle that would surely need all the vitality they had? The Shane was already a bit sore and lacking the gumption they all knew him for. Maybe this was time better spent at rest, or even for light competitive banter.

”Eli.”

He kept his silence. Junjie kept going. “I don’t need to know much, you know? Just the basics, like what I should expect when dueling them, or what they’re plans and ambitions are. This…seems like a tough topic.”

Eli Shane, still slightly hurt by before and not hiding it, signaled his three older friends to ride a bit ahead of them.

Kord approached. “E.”

Eli just gave him a fist bump. “It’s okay, K. I’ll call out or send a slug if I need you here.”

A few paces later, the two protectors had some room to talk.

“We don’t have time for many details.” Eli was tapping his fingers on Lucky. “But Dr. Blakk, in some way he refuses to tell me, is the reason my dad disappeared. He might have been sent to the Deep Caverns. Or he just killed him outright…that bitch withheld most of the story.”

…Okay. That was awful.

How could they respond to that? Maybe they just don’t and keep going? And keep the questions short?

Eli seemed like he was expecting that; treating this like an intel briefing instead of a personal vent session. Staying professional, remembering his mission and why he was dealing with this in the first place. His responsibilities made him feel centered, gave him control, gave him a reason to keep shooting.

But this man had already took out his father; the anchor for Eli’s faith in his own strength and righteousness. He couldn’t keep the two separate; Eli and the Shane title were glued together intimately. No wonder Eli was leaning on the Shane side; Junjie couldn’t imagine the Emperor being the reason for his own family’s passing, as well as his own torment, and ALSO the near end of the world.

It would drive them insane.

Junjie understood, now. Why Eli Shane had to get this out, and fast. He didn’t have the option to keep his personal life out of the fate of the world. If he had his way, he would never dump these secrets so rapidly and desperately. But he had to.

Junjie had to remind themselves its not their own fault they don’t know what’s happening. They didn’t force Eli to air out his rough experiences like this. That’s just how life worked, sometimes.

But oh, it was so easy to blame themselves for not being good enough.

They’ll play along, pretending like this is all okay, and be there for Eli when he lets them be.

“Deep caverns? I think we have those too. There’s a portal to a hellish world of mountains and monsters my family is supposed to help guard. It’s where the Emperor and the Goon come from.”

Eli nodded. “There might be two different deep Caverns, then. In the West, there’s the Dark Bane - the fighters from back there.”

Junjie furrowed their eyebrows. “Horrific. No wonder that got a reaction from you all. How are they here? How did the Goon get in there?”

“I don’t know….we just need to send them back.” Did Dr. Blakk see my dad down there?

Eli had seized up on Lucky, pupils widening over something. Jun gave the guy a little moment, and then acted on his urge to help the fellow teenager.

He delicately touched the western protector on the shoulder. “Blakk made Ghouls over her,” Junjie calmly began. “And…hurt you. A little like the Goon.”

Not wanting to ride his mechabeast off the road, he retreated back. And Eli snorted. “Yeah. Dad left when I was 10. Moved to the Hideout at 15…quickly found those three. I got lucky there.”

His face hardened. “Soon I learned that Blakk industries were getting dark water, gaining allies by giving them Ghouls, taking advantage of the stupid slug trade to get more slugs to his corruption machines. Found a way to make his own terra-portal and made an alliance with the Dark Bane, which he used to stay out of prison…trust me, we tried.” He was solemn. “He wants power, he wants control of the world and naively allies with the Dark Bane thinking that’s how he’ll get it. And he sees Slugs only as a way to get there, not as living beings who are the lifeblood of Slugterra. He killed the master who trained my father. He trained another guy, Twist, to be our friend and, after tricking us a few times, revealed he worked for Blakk and betrayed us.” Eli sheepishly smiled. “Sorry for distrusting you at first, we’re just….Twist was so great at first, and still sold us out. He’s the only new member we’ve ever really recruited. Hard to trust after that.”

Jun nodded understandingly. “Of course.” All this happened in less than a year. They found new gratefulness at the relative peace their life had, before the Goon.

“So, at some point Blakk got super powerful, and we were gaining support and firepower, so Blakk moved up his plans to destroy everything. Made these things called Gattler guns - you probably saw it, he was carrying it - it can fire slugs really, really fast. Basically, a full-out war was going on for a month or two. Caverns blown up. Supply chains ransacked. Transportation near impossible - he blew up the main mecha depot of the 99 caverns. We teamed up with resistance fighters and Shadow Clan and, when Blakk decided to open a terra portal with all his ghouls, we got to send the Dark Bane that showed up back where they belong…and me and Burpy, after he punched me into it, pushed Blakk deep into the portal, then flew out. Left him to drop with no exit. And that was the end of it.”

Eli winced. “Or, I really wish it was. A month and a half after Blakk fell, we just did clean-up and dealt with remnant lackeys and independent gangs. Then the Goon, we meet you...BOOM, you’re caught up.”

Junjie treaded carefully. “...But there’s more?”

Eli had another moment, thinking deeply. “Yeah. Because I think you noticed that he…he hates me.”

Yes, yes I did. “For being the Shane?”

“Oh yes. But also, we had a few duels. I remind him of my dad, who was his arch nemesis, even when growing up. I am this new guy who just decided to systematically ruin all his plans, because me and the crew are just great like that.” He tried to laugh. “The Shanes were back. But I was a fresh face, and we were the underdogs. He had a whole company. A railroad, new tech…control of his own prison system, and later, the official prison system of a few areas. Sometimes we got captured. Most times, we were all together, and busted out within the hour.”

The tapping got more frequent. Eli swallowed as if a whole rat was in his throat.

“Till one time, about 4 months ago. Got me and Kord. Separated us. Did nothing but starve Kord. Messed with me for 3 days.”

Junjie couldn’t deny the shiver that ran down their spine.

No, they wouldn’t react. They refused to show pity, or let the emotions run wild when Eli didn’t want them to. Eli was telling his story. He had to get this out without delay. And keep impartiality to make logical decisions in the near future, because he’s already found out the effects of dwelling on his time in captivity too much.

He deserved justice, and kindness. He deserved revenge.

They would get all of that. Junjie would help. They would get justice, and peace, and time to process this mission that, according to what happened on the beach, also ended up traumatizing.

Eli pushed on. “So, yeah. We’re all a little more protective of each other now. It’s why Kord asked why you left me on the island - last time I was left along with Blakk…”

“They were trying to rescue you, too. And they were worried of…something similar.”

Eli’s voice has not improved since before. “Yeah. He kinda-” A breathe, then a cadence that was on rapid fire mode: “ poisoned me, with dark water and I was in…so much pain, for about three, four weeks. Nightmares were a side-effect from drinking that, but I guess my brain got used to having those.” He looked directly at the eastern protector. “So dark water and Blakk make me a bit nervous. I’d rather die than lose my cool about it during this operation, but I don’t want you not to know the situation and the possibility that I…might not handle some moments. Plus…” Eli lowered his volume, “they would hate me for this, but don’t be afraid to use his shitty character trait to our advantage out there? He would have killed me before if he didn’t want to do god knows what to me later - we can use that in a tough spot, even as a spot of leverage. He wants me alive.”

Jun was defensive for Eli’s sake at that idea. “No, no I will not do that. Eli, this is….”

It was similar to the pain of the Goon taking over, mentally and physically, but weeks of that? Being completely awake for it? It was like the Emperor’s few days of tyranny over them, but at least he wanted to keep Junjie healthy to be the Goon’s host, specifically not taking them captive when the rest of the fighters were carted off in chains, or…disposed of.

And he found out Blakk was back, alone, and almost died escaping. Again.

Junjie dropped their guard completely. Eli just learned his abuser returned. It happened so quick, and instead of mentally sorting it out, he was spending their downtime telling Junjie about some of the worst moments of his life…so they could defeat him and save the world.

Because Eli’s trauma WAS Shane business.

Screw Eli’s mental fortitude, his mind was probably just a bottle under pressure, about to explode if at least some of the pressure wasn’t aired out.

They let their conflicted reactions show completely. It’s not like they were taking this story well, either.

“Eli, I’m so sorry.”

He gritted his teeth and summoned a response. “...Don’t be - you're helping me banish him, this time for good.” Eli wished that would come out with more strength.

“...Justice will be served,” Junjie said instead, reserving the curses they would throw to that horrid doctors name to themself. They’ll make sure him and the Goon never get to their friend ever again. They knew the story, now. They were going to do something.

“And if it matters at all: I swear to my ancestor Yang that Blakk will be gone, Eli Shane.” This got Eli’s eyes to break their neutrality, clicking open like he honestly didn’t expect strong conviction from the Eastern champion. They were delighted to prove them wrong. “Me and all of your friends are going to help you banish them all. You don’t deserve all this hardship, Shane or not. No one’s ever going to touch you ever again.”

Eli was at a loss for words. Maybe he did need this talk, straight from someone who knows what it’s like for your enemy to haunt more than just the citadels and prisons. It struck him so deeply, that he was almost too scared to keep discussing this topic. How could one just replace the bandaid when the wound was out in the open, and…

Finally starting to heal properly? He felt lighter, like when he told the Gang about the Surface. Suddenly he wanted to talk all day about it. With Jun. With Kord and Trixie and Pronto. It’ll be hard, but sorely needed. They had been letting it fester, thinking time could heal all the hurt, but they’re the Shanes; they didn’t have time. But they did have allies, and friends. People that understood each other. A support system that they’ve been enjoying, but not utilizing to its fullest potential.

Junjie had similar ideas, and knew as well as he did that now was not the hour to dive into it.

Maybe another inquiry would serve as a decent distraction? They had plenty more questions to choose from. “And, uh, what’s the Surface?”

Eli choked. “...The greatest secret my family has ever kept.”

“So secret your dad left it in that message for the Shadow Clan to hear?”

Eli seemed uncomfortable, but at least less frightened about this content. Maybe he could get some advice from his new protector contemporary?

“....I’m kinda the first Shane I know to include my gang in stuff like Shadow Clan activities. No doubt he assumed I would take the Enigmo slug to a discreet location, instead of just being hit outright. He would have done all the hologram stuff privately. This…” he stooped his head down. “....is a big conversation. But I guess you're the protector of your own land, and it’s your world, so it’s fine? Not like I can keep it from you now anyway.” He blinked up. “What do you know about the Burning World? Or the Surface?”

Junjie was perplexed. “I do not know those terms.”

Eli glanced up to the rocky ceiling. “Above Slugterra. There’s another world. And it’s huge, and nothing like our world down here. There’s legends over here about it. And it’s the Shane’s biggest duty to make sure no one learns the legends are real.”

Despite the day’s events, they beamed. “Wait, the land above isn’t common knowledge here? China is known by everyone, at least in my home cavern. It’s part of the story of how humans came down here.”

…

Eli was speechless. Genuinely did not move. Junjie was concerned this was a medical emergency of some kind.

Then Jun could see the gears in his head turning, processing. “Holy shit, really?!? Tell me fucking everyt-”

“We’re out!” Pronto called out. When reality hit the two slingers in the head. Right. The Elementals. The reason their heart to heart happened. Burpy, snuggled in his friend’s neck.

It occurred to the eastern champion that Blakk would have never let Burpy stay with Eli those three days. The thought had their hand come up to Joo-Joo on their shoulder (who had undoubtedly been communicating with Burpy this whole time, worried for the slingers), which the eastern Infernus responded to by resting his head atop of their knuckles.

It’s odd, how close they all were now, despite their worlds not even knowing about the other just weeks before.

Jun hurried in their remarks, and made a courtesy with their hands; the same ones they made when they were freed from the Goon. “Thank you for trusting me with this information, Eli Shane. Your secrets are safe with me. I am honored to assist you.” they let their voice get razor sharp, and let the mech engine make some noise. “Let’s take that bastard down.”

They ignored the double take the Shane took when Jun cursed. Because Eli grinned wildly, and it reminded them of that smile he wore when they accepted the trip to the mushroom forest that night. His chin was high, his voice even gained color. And, this time, he correctly answered Jun’s courtesy. “Full speed, Shane Gang!”

*

They found the Earth Elemental; the mudslide shenanigans helped Eli and the now semi-filled-in Junjie lighten up, embracing a little rivalry in good fun. There were some hiccups with the team - but they were regular growing pains, nothing to write home about.

They flew from the high-up caves into the Jungle Cavern. Seeing floral mushrooms like in Eli’s Caverns, morphed into that murky red he hates, left a bad taste in Junjie’s mouth.

Then the fighting continued. And then, Blakk shot something to the ground, and a deep crimson portal opened up. Right below everyone but Junjie.

Now way were they allowing Eli to touch that horrid evil energy ever again.

In a rush of panic, Jun fired a Neotox Slug into the pit below, which sprouted vines, lifting his friends out of the hell they were falling into.

More slug fire; then a harsh voice screamed. “Eli”, it drawled on, freezing the Shane in place behind his shooting cover. “The battle is over. We know you have the Earth Elemental. You can’t win! Give it up.”

Eli wasn’t having it. “And stop beating you up? Never.”

His slugs made a plan, and his eyes lit up in delight. Smart! He got Junjie in on the plan.

“Well, Shane? Saying your goodbyes to the stupid Troll before Stalagmite-17 opens just for you?”

Unfortunately, Eli had been a Shane far longer than a victim of cruel and unusual punishment. “Ah, I see someone’s jealous Kord can still out-lift you.” Kord spewed out a chuckle from behind his blaster.

“Hey, Blakk! You want the Earth Elemental? Go and get it!”

*

The Goon had cornered Eli, laughing joyfully at the Shane’s misfortune when near all his slugs were ghouled, and the caverns were starting to crumble around him.

“I sense that you’re close, there’s no use in hiding!”

Eli was up in a flash, pointing his blaster at the Goon’s slinger’s back. “Who says I’m hiding?”

Even quicker was the Goon’s response, flipping Eli onto his back and flicking his Shane blaster too far away.

“I know you have the Energy Elemental somewhere, Eil. We scoured Quiet Lawn Cavern looking for it. And it was nowhere to be found.”

“How did you even know where to look? You somehow hacked into my father’s hologram, didn’t you?”

“Hologram?!?” The Goon…didn’t know about it at all? “No, you fool. I simply hacked into the real thing.”

And the Goon took off the hidden slinger’s head mask. And while his hair had grown, his eyes turned red, and it had been a few years, Eli knew that face from anywhere.

He memorized it every time he came back home, back when the surface felt like home.

He lifted himself to his feet. “Dad?”

His dad was pointing a gun to his chest, and Eli could do nothing but put his hands up. “Dad. What are you-”

“He can’t hear you. His mind is mine. You remember what that’s like.”

His mind, dark and numb and completely out of his control. Was it better or worse than his mind, reeling with selfish thoughts, in pain, in a completely different type of powerlessness?

Dad…dad went through both, didn’t he. Just like I did.

And had no rescue team.

The red eyes his dad was forced to glare at him with was frying his brain. He knew what his nightmare tonight was going to include. “Yeah, well I prefer not to think about it.” He had to buy time for Doc to hop around; might as well get his feelings off his chest in the downtime.

“The Energy Elemental. Hand it over, now!”

I have to save the slug energy. If I make this shot, I save Slugterra. But I also save my dad.

Oh stars above, I can save my dad!

“Okay, okay easy.” He glared at the Goon, the fiend who’s hurt the three protectors of Slugterra, and will do so no more. “You want the Energy Elemental? He’s right here!”

His legs sprinted; a trigger pull rang out, matched soon by his own.

Green washed over his father’s body, and the Goon leapt off, the throne that was the Shane’s right shoulder free at last. For Burpy to hop on. For Eli to crush him in as big of a hug he could, the second this battle ended.

But Will Shane wasn’t up right away, and Eli checked himself. We have to make it out of this alive first, we have to save the other elementals.

But putting on a Shane’s face felt wrong. Burpy and two of the elementals were un-ghouled, and Eli was walking over, the trot feeling eerily similar to the march he made to that letter box all those years ago.

“No, no,” he reached out and grabbed his chest. “Dad!”

Will Shane’s eyes opened, looking at his son for the first time in five years. “Eli. The elementals.”

His insides lurched. Shane business, Eli’s mind pleaded behind the surge of light in his chest. Shane business.

The ghoul came out of nowhere and hit straight on, knocking him and the elementals away.

“Not so fast.”

Blakk had his father Gooned. Eli was supposed to be the one to take all of the pain! He signed up Will Shane for this, too? Is that why he even gave his dark water, to do the same thing to him that he had done to his father?

Anger, hotter than the burning sun, coursed through his blood.

More importantly, the same could be said for Will Shane, whose mind was clear and purposeful for the first time in an outrageous amount of years.

Will Shane was the father, the experienced fighter, the one trained by the Unbeatable Master, and Jimmo Shane. The one who knew all the secrets.

Eli was barely over fifteen, probably. Bigger, stronger. Appearing strong, but the father noticed the slight twitches - Eli’s body wanted to tremble, in a way he’s seen adults shake on the battlefield after one too many bad fights. Something that he’s never seen on his son, or anyone as young as he still was.

Blurred with rage, Will knew Thaddius hurt his son.

Eli Shane witnessed his father fire a blaster as Burpy knocked their villain over.

I love you, dad.

Burpy sped back, and father and son finally got to ride his slug - their slug? Would they share Burpy now? - together.

Then Eli jumped off, and carefully helped his dad off. He seemed tired, and unfortunately, he understood why. My dad. Right here, slung around my shoulder. Fuck, focus! He wouldn’t want me to throw my head out of the game! “Guys!”, he called out to the Shane Gang.

“Hey, Burpy’s back!” He loved Kord. That would make a good first impression.

In the back, Junjie wondered about the man, but was far more keen on their own Infernus taking their shoulder once more. Good, we got you back. We are here. “I’m glad you are safe, Joo-Joo.” They used the smile - that really earnest one that lacked the seriousness a protector was taught to hold constantly in public - that Eli Shane taught him, even in their short time here.

Then they started to catch on.

“Eli, is this-”

“Can’t be!”

And Jun gasped. And here he is again. Junjie smiled. Eli had the perfect spot to bring his dad to when they got back to the Shane cavern. Behind Eli’s back, Jun greeted Will Shane, left fist in their right’s palm.

Eli had not been paying attention to any of that - only the man in front of him. “Dad, you okay?” He was reaching out. For what, a hug? It’s Shane business time. Eli mentally criticized himself. He taught Eli better than that.

Will Shane seemed just as dazed, not knowing what to do. But there was one easy thing he could mark off his bucket list.

He grinned at Burpy, who had leapt to his shoulder like a moth to a flame; so he succeeded, then, and brought Eli to the letter. Good. “Hello, old friend. Thank you.”

It sounded out of breathe, so unlike who he was before the deep caverns. But Burpy didn’t care. His smile burned brightly, like he had from Shane to Shane.

“Eli. The future of Slugterra’s at stake. You must-”

“I know,” Eli stopped him, then filled him in. “Say hello, Doc.”

Fantastic name for a healing energy elemental. That was his son, with slugs and a blaster from Redhook and a confidence that he will prevail despite everything that’s undoubtedly happened. Every second like this was a gift they both more than deserved; his son was wearing the Shane badge! He had gone to the hideout. He made it to the underground.

He grinned like a madman, which maybe he was, with all his bones fatigued and all his other little pains in his body from so much dark water the past while.

“Well come on, then,” he gained back his energy. Maybe from Doc. Maybe from freedom. Maybe from the spark of hope that he could finally help Eli, like he should have been doing for all this time.

“We can’t waste time. We can catch him by surprise.”

His son had his back when he walked along. “You heard him, come on!”

The Shane had his own gang and everything. Oh, to hell with it.

He snatched Eli into a side hug as they walked. “I believe some thanks are in order. Good work. I’m proud of you, son. We’ll have our moment when the Elementals are all safe, clear?”

Eli’s resolve to heal came back up to the surface. We never have time. But we have people at our backs, and we protect each other.

Eli, in a sudden urge to laugh, realized he had stopped trembling. He guessed it was that, duh, dad was here. He was safe.

*

As they watched Blakk be Gooned (none of them found much sympathy for the man), WIll Shane was sizing up this new Shane Gang. All young, with a girl and a cave troll and a mullanoid. But definitely a unit capable of some great feats, if they got his Shane-blooded son this far.

His son would have to start telling HIM stories about Slugterra. The thought gave him so much pride he almost forgot about the years of solitude and pain in the deep caverns.

They took cover at some trees. The father noticed Eli never leaning on the blood red branches.

Eli gave him uncertain eyes, gesturing to his team. Am I calling the shots?

Will smiled, like he did when he drove Eli for ice cream after school. “Go on, kid.”

The new Shane made a fist. “We gotta try the same thing as before. Lure him into the line of fire so I can shoot him with Doc. And this time around,” he gave a look to his dad, a new one. The one of a fighter, about to win the war. “We’ve got two Shanes. Right, dad?”

It was Will Shane’s honor to take his son’s arm and make a fist. “Let’s do it.”

There was much squealing from the other three. Glad to know more than just his family missed him.

And if he took their comments as a chance to take Eli into is arms real quick, patting his back when jumping out, well. It’s like what he always told Eli; nothing matters more than family.

And now they can to do what the Shanes always did - save Slugterra.

*

Soon, they were shooting at Blakk together from the trees, just as planned.

“Ready?”

“Ready!”

And they were on the move. Eli stopped to get a good shot in on the Dark Bane, and yelled, “You had a clear shot and you blew it, Blakk!”

Will Shane didn’t know the context, but he knew dueling banter when he saw it. His son was as cheeky as he was!

Blakk was certainly seething his mind right now. And the frustrated roar out of the many-times-beaten slinger, in the voice of a desperate Goon, was SO worth it. “Get them!” Silly Blakk, and Goon, they would never be able to point with an index finger threateningly with the ease and charm a Shane could.

He gave his son a fist bump, then they were back to the unstable portal. “Split up, you can take position at the other side of the sinkhole.”

And he found Blakk, a big blaster with many shells a few paces away. Huh, so machine gun blasters are a thing now, good to know. Like father like son; cope with humor on the mission, cope with family after it.

“It seems I’ve spent so much time in your mind, Will Shane, that I can anticipate your moves.”

Finally, back to what he was good at; and his slugs could transform up here. “We’ll see.”

They slugged back and forth, Will hitting first.

But Will was slow. Goon control is not kind to a body’s reaction time. And his trip to the deep caverns was much less invigorating than Blakk’s. His hard-earned experience didn’t save his blaster as it was slugged out of his grip, broken on the red and black floor of the forest cavern.

Junjie was in position above; they planned the shoot-out, though not the broken-blaster part.

Jun was going to make good on their promise; they were going to help send Blakk and the Goon back where those hateful creatures belonged, away from the Eastern Caverns, and out of the Shane family’s minds.

Jun spotted the kill shot just in time, and with Slug-Fu, they stopped it mid-air. You’re not messing with my fellow protectors again, not on my watch! This world will not fall! I forbid it!

Will Shane had no idea how they did that, but now was not the time for questions. “Now, Eli!”

Don’t have to tell me twice, dad. Doc reached one hundred miles per hour, and freed Blakk from the Goon. The Goon went down, injured.

The elementals colors returned to their scales, happy noises vibrating the field.

Will Shane whistled. “So many slugs, so much time, and you still can’t beat the Shanes, Thaddius. Viggo might still be hiring, you know.”

Okay, low blow. But that’s what you get when you mess with his son.

Blakk growls.

Junjie relishes in his displeasure. They welcome the chance they're given, and redirects the ghoul to send Blakk and Goon down the hole.

“Yes!” They did it!

The whole gang (six of them, now) were cheering, speeding to regroup far away from the sinkhole.

“Great shot, Eli!”

It occurs to Eli Shane that this was the first time they won a battle together. Just like his dad and him fantasized about, five very long years ago. Before he left, before his mom left, and before he left, too.

Eli tackled his old man, burying his face where the Shane star should be. And would be again, at long last. The ones who hurt them were gone, down to a hell made only for evil like them.

“Thanks, dad.” He spun out and looked around. “Did we get them all?”

“All five! But to save Slugterra and reverse the damage, we have to shoot them simultaneously.”

Gingerly, he handed the five in his hands over to his son. Not like he had a blaster. Besides, his son could do it.

As he began fratenizing with Eli’s companions, a hand shot up from the sinkhole.

The Goon was in the gattler, pointed to Eli Shane and all five Elementals in his hands.

His instincts didn’t save him from the panic this time.

The Goon. Blakk. Dark energy. I’ll be ghouled. I won’t be able to save the others. No, no, NO-

“Take the shot, Blakk, shoot, SHOOT!”

*

“ELI!”

This was not a reckless Shane moment.

Will Shane knew many things, but only three of them were important.

One: he had no blaster, and the Goon was yelling to shoot. No slug would stop the shot. His friends were too far, their draws too slow.

Two; Eli was full-on shaking, eyes wide with fear. He hated that look on his son. Not only did Blakk get Eli, so did the Goon?

Oh, Will is out for murder.

And three; the elementals. Specifically, Doc, who was their only weapon against the Goon. Slugterra would fall, from the Goon, right here, right now.

Will was getting older. Eli was young. He was the Shane, now. He saw today how much his son could do by himself, even when Will failed to be there for him in his most formative years. And he had a whole life, a whole world, ahead of him.

Shane’s get hurt. Will had been hurt. Eli had been hurt. The whole Gang had been, probably. But Will could handle a second trip, even if there was no rescue in sight. Slugterra would have a Shane in his absence, like it had before. It was Eli’s turn. Will was going to support him with everything he’s got.

And just this once, he could save his son. Hell, it was his fault Blakk was a generational problem to begin with.

It’s not your fault, Eli. It’s simple: the bad guys hurt us, but there’s always a Shane to set things right.

Today, that is you. And I’ll fall as many times as I must, to save the world. To stop you getting hurt.

You are a Shane. But you are not the Shane to suffer today.

You can try to save me, when all this is done, if it’ll make you feel better.

Like a shooting star, he hit his target, and fell.

I love you, Eli.

*

“Stop! NOOOOOOOOO!”

Eli’s lungs restarted. A new fear shot through him, the flames boiling at his heart.

“No!” He ran, all the way to the edge. “No.” There was no sign of them on this side of the red storm. ”Dad!”

I’m supposed to take the pain! Why, after just coming back, did he not let me get out of there?!? Oh god, its my fault, it’s my fault! I should have saved myself! I didn’t need rescuing! I could take Blakk again! It should be me! Not again, not again! “No, no, Dad!”

Jump, save him! He needs someone to save him! He’s dropping into a sea of dark water! I could go in and shoot Burpy and save him! I HAVE TO.

His weight fled forward. Arms grabbed him from the edge. “Eli, no!”

Junjie was there, hating themself from being behind the trees, far away from what just happened. No, I can still do something. I have to think like a Shane.

“You must save Slugterra, now! While there is still time.” Shane time, Eli. Come on!

Which means there’s still time to jump in and pull him out, or stop him from reaching dark water! He struggled. “No! I have to save him! He’s gone through enough. I’VE gone through it, I can do it, I have to, I have to protect him, if I can’t than I don’t deserve to be safe anyway, I can handle more dark water if it means-”

“He wanted us to be here, Eli! Listen to me!”

Eli’s pants of air clogged up. “But-”

“It hurts. We want to do something. But while he’s suffering, we are here, because he chose to take it for you! He knew the stakes! He has given us the chance to save Slugterra. And we-” they tripped on the words, but damn it, both of them needed this - “We deserve to be happy. Up here. With the world SAVED. Do not fail this world like I did mine. Set aside your emotions, just until the battle is won. It’s what your father would want you to do. It is your duty.”

“And do NOT,” they finally pulled Eli in for a hug, “feel bad for needing a reminder of that, right now.”

Eli, cautiously, hugged back. He wanted the pain to stop.

For the first time he can remember, he didn’t care about the world.

Then, over Jun’s shoulder, he saw Kord. When we’re hurt, we regret what led us here. And make bad decisions.

Eli steeled himself, as if Blakk was in front of him, holding another gray cup. Drink it, and you save a friend, a father. Don’t, and Slugterra keeps their Shane.

This time, he let Kord have it. Not because he was selfish. Because he knew he could take it. And he had to trust that his dad could take it, too.

He was a Shane. They got hurt. But maybe that hurt proved they could take it, that they’re alive despite it. When others died, they lived.

My dad is still alive.

“Load ‘em up.”

This time, when walking to the elementals and his friends, he knew there was no letter to tell him what to do next. So, wordlessly, he took Doc - they all took an elemental - and shot them across Slugterra.

The red bled away. Back to like it was before. Only nothing was fixed. The Evil just ran themselves out of luck before Good did.

“The Shane Gang just saved Slugterra. And now, the five of us,” at Eli’s command, they all placed their hands in a circle. “Are gonna save my dad.”

No more red. No dad. But no more red. But his dad was headed to where all the dark water came from. Where they would get a power boost, and he would be forced back into survival mode.

Is it bad, that he was a little glad it wasn’t him?

So much happened, that day. Eli’s mind felt like it was fighting in the apocalypse. Eli collapsed to the nice, healthy ground, and found no joy in how his cold tears wiped off the ashes and jitters off his hands.

The circle surrounded him, wishing more than anything they could take the poison out of his head.

Blakk and the Goon had landed one final hit, and time couldn't heal the blow.

But the four other Shane’s could.

They had to.

After a while, the eyes grew dry, and it was time to drive home. None of them had eaten the whole day, after all. Kord lifted Eli, and Pronto was sniffing, trying to find a way out of the cavern and where their mechas were.

Junjie sat besides Eli. Neither felt like Protectors, more like failures. It was their faults, wasn’t it? Every loss, adding up on the lists tattooed onto both their legacies. The Unbeatable Master. Will Shane. And who knows, how many in the Eastern Caverns.

And all before either’s sixteenth birthdays.

Eli’s breathe was shallow, trying to form the right words. He moved his glazed eyes to the other kid. “Thank you, Jun.”

Junjie didn’t crack a joke, this time. They feared it would break both of them.

Silently, the eastern protector took his arm. Comrades in arms. Allies. Friends.

Trixie’s hand lifted her friend’s face. “Eli. We gotta walk away, now.”

He blinked, dazed.

He was like a brother to Trix. Which meant, it was her that had to make the calculated risk. “We’re good at rescuing, Eli. And when we do, it’ll send a message - Shane’s always win the war.”

Eli Shane took a long sigh. “Only because they like hurting us more than defeating us.”

Trixie Sting hated how right he sounded.

Eli was exhausted. Kord carried him on their trek to find the mechs, already dreading the next battle: getting Eli to eat and drink at the Hideout.