Chapter Text
Hongjoong awoke with a shuddering gasp.
Immediately, he was coughing as a sharp pain stabbed his lungs. The memory of a spear coming down at him, of the grinning face of a navy soldier, penetrated his mind with alarming swiftness. This was the last thing he had seen, his last memory. A horrible scenario he wished to never see again.
His muscles acted on instinct. His fist quickly moved up to block the deadly weapon from coming down on him, but he met resistance. Fingers wrapped around his wrist to keep him in place, and a fresh wave of panic made Hongjoong heave for breath.
Not again. He had to fight, please-
"Open your eyes. You're safe."
That was a familiar voice. Hongjoong had heard it before.
At once, all of his energy depleted, and his hand would have dropped on his face, had the person holding him not put it down carefully on his chest. Cautious, Hongjoong felt over his clothed chest. He couldn't find the injury he remembered vividly to have sustained, and while the absence of pain relieved him, it also made him incredibly suspicious.
Where was he?
"Can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?"
He probably could, but Hongjoong needed a minute. He had no idea what was going on. This felt all wrong. He was not entirely sure why this present moment appeared like a foggy hallucination to him, but he knew it was not supposed to be.
So, to find out what exactly the issue here was, Hongjoong opened his eyes.
It was mostly dark around him. He seemed to be laying in some sort of cave that had a ceiling high enough for it to get lost somewhere in the darkness looming in every corner. There was only one tall torch burning near them somewhere, but its warmth could not make up for the coldness that blanketed the room icily.
An alleviated sigh came from the person next to him. He had been leaning next to Hongjoong against whatever uncomfortable stone that had become his resting place.
But what was all of this?
"Good. I assume you're still in pain. Want something to chew on?" The man next to Hongjoong shifted, searching the pouches on his belt for something of use. Hongjoong cluelessly blinked at the dark locks that tumbled into his eyes as he moved. The fire seemed to dance like it was part of his golden skin wherever it met him, seeming unnatural.
"Bang Yongguk."
The man lifted his head to grace Hongjoong with a fleeting smile. Both of them ignored how throaty the pirate's voice was.
"Aye, welcome back to the world of mortals." With that, he wrapped an arm around Hongjoong's shoulders to slowly move him up in a sitting position. For a second, nausea clouded his mind, but then he managed to stay upright. He also began mindlessly chewing on the leaf Yongguk offered to him.
"If you say welcome back..."
Yongguk gave a patient nod and pushed his cloak back so he could sit down next to Hongjoong comfortably. With a deep hum, he watched the shadows of the cave play a push and pull game with the flames of the fire.
"You died."
Hongjoong was surprised by these words. If he had died, how was he here? Was this a dream? Did Yongguk die, too? Or was he maybe able to travel within both realms through his magic?
"I remember pain... I was stabbed. You didn't save me?"
With a grim expression etched onto his face, Yongguk shook his head.
"I couldn't. There were too many. You were already dead by the time I could even get through."
Perplexed, Hongjoong looked down at his hands that he could feel in his lap and his kicking feet. He appeared to be so alive, how could he be dead?
"I'm afraid I don't understand." Growing more distressed, he started chewing harder. The bitter juices of the leaf numbed his throat and took away some of the pain.
"It has been four months, Hongjoong. It took me all this time to get you back." He pushed all nine of his fingers through his hair, stressed. Hongjoong idly let his feet move in circles. He could do something like this.
"Four months?"
"What I'm saying is... You've been dead for four months. And I brought you back to life just now."
Hongjoong's feet stilled in their movement. Idly, he traced the silver ring on his right hand with his thumb.
"I'm afraid I still can't believe you... It's nothing personal, Yongguk. But even you can't make people live," he murmured dejectedly and without lifting his eyes off the pretty ring with the black gem inside.
A weak chuckle sounded from the other man, breaking through the barricade of his hands joylessly.
"Think about Seonghwa, then."
A painful stab that was worse than any wound Hongjoong could ever sustain hit him in the chest. He doubled over from the force of it, gasping for air with wide eyes as he suddenly was unable to breathe anymore.
Memories flashed again, memories that had never really settled with him, because he had died too soon, too fast.
It had been their wedding day. Seonghwa had looked gorgeous. His eyes had been shining and sparkling with the special glint that they only ever got when Hongjoong or his family was mentioned.
He had looked at Seonghwa while he died. Had seen all the hope and happiness empty out. Had seen that glint go out like a candle hit by a gust of wind.
He remembered the pain of Seonghwa seeing him like this, of seeing Seonghwa look at him at that moment as endlessly worse than the physical pain.
Hot tears dripped out of Hongjoong's eyes as he clutched at his shirt, trying to calm his raging heart. He felt weak. Weak and incredibly useless.
"Why-"
"Do you think any pain would ever feel this extreme if you were still dead? No. You're feeling it because you are alive."
Hongjoong needed another five minutes to calm down, but he didn't ask again. He understood by now. He didn't need to know the physics or magic behind this, not now. Apparently, Yongguk had achieved the impossible and made him come back. Unexpectedly, he had once again returned to this world.
"Where is he?" Why wasn't he here? If he was alright, why wouldn't he want to see Hongjoong came back? Perhaps he had been afraid to see it fail. Hongjoong couldn't have born the sight of Seonghwa dying and the tries to bring him back failing, too.
"Somewhere out there. He doesn't know of this, yet."
At that, Hongjoong sharply twisted his head towards Yongguk. He noticed the lack of hair in the back of his neck and assumed Yongguk had cut it. It was probably black again now, too.
"Yongguk!"
"It's an important mission. I couldn't just access him. And neither can you." Yongguk reached into his bag at the foot of the altar they were sitting on and getting a flask with alcohol. Wordlessly, he handed it to Hongjoong and the pirate took a big gulp. Some spilt over his chin, but he didn't care as he gave it back.
"I need to see him."
"Do you remember this place? Know where you are?"
It was too dark to see much in the big and cold cave. Hongjoong had seen his fair share of those.
"It was where this cult lived. Where you were trapped once."
Hongjoong looked around again, and indeed, he could now recognise the layout. He remembered benches standing there, and the wendigo, of course. Today, it was nearly empty save for the altar, but that seemed to have been all that Yongguk had needed.
He nodded slowly. Yongguk had said it was a great place for magic once.
"You can go see him, I won't be able to stop you from it. I've seen him wither away for long enough now. But... You'll put him in danger. He's infiltrating the Royal Navy at the moment, and that is nothing we should overlook. He's being watched from many sides and he can only hide so much until his identity becomes public."
That wouldn't stop Hongjoong. Rather, it made him want to get moving faster. The sooner he knew Seonghwa safe and happy in his arms again, the sooner Hongjoong would allow himself to rest and take this weird situation into consideration, too.
However, this screamed for trouble.
"What?! Why is he doing that?" Seonghwa and the navy? He had a bounty on his head for God's sake, they were out for his blood! There was no mercy for the likes of him!
"Four months can be a long time for anybody. Seonghwa is trying to get part of your crew back that was captured on the day you were attacked, but your loss hasn't been kind to him. He's nowhere near stable, and if you appeared in front of him just like that while not even knowing how you came back yourself, you will put both of you at great risk." Yongguk sipped from his alcohol, still seeming stressed despite having succeeded in his task.
Hongjoong felt his body collapse a bit, sinking into a fetal position.
Seonghwa was suffering.
Yongguk's hand brotherly squeezed his shoulder as he tried to console to the best of his abilities. A tense silence enveloped them for a few minutes until Hongjoong felt ready to talk again. There were still so many questions he wanted to ask, and he knew he needed to be patient and find answers first before he could go and act brusquely.
"Why do you keep beating yourself up for saving me?"
A humourless chuckle escaped Yongguk at that question out of all the possible ones. He pushed his hair back and tied it together with a leather band before putting the flask in his bag once again.
"I messed it up. Which is not entirely my fault, but I tried to go for something else. I've overestimated my preparations. The opposing force was too powerful for me to withstand."
Hongjoong tried crossing his legs and was satisfied when it worked. He was wearing some loose but warm clothes, probably Yongguk's. If it had been four months then it had to be winter now. It explained the cold.
"I was trying to revive the whole you... But instead, I just kicked your umbra out and put you in his place. I made a Kira out of you, a wandering soul. Nothing dead, but also nothing alive. This was not supposed to happen."
Hongjoong pricked his ears at that comment.
"You made my umbra die? Just like that?" His voice was growing stronger by now, just like his confidence as he didn't feel that pain returning. His brain must have reminded him of it in the first moment of returning.
"Well, he was gone to begin with when you died. Took your soul and returned to whatever hellish hole he spawned of. So I needed to ask him to hand your soul back. Offered him other things that were in his interest instead. I was supposed to put your soul back into your body and revive you, but... I went wrong somewhere. It fused wrong, I think, or maybe he was trying to trap the magic somehow to keep me from it, I don't know. Fact is that the process killed him and put you in his stead."
Hongjoong couldn't help but giggle. At Yongguk's pout, his laughter just grew until it was echoing in the dark cave gleefully.
"Oh, this is wonderful. You did well, Yongguk, thank you so much for your help. I'll make sure to bring you anything you ask for in exchange. Kira was still able to stab a person just fine, this won't stop me." With that, Hongjoong jumped down from the altar and regained his balance on land for a second, before offering his hand to Yongguk.
The man reluctantly accepted it and let himself be pulled to his feet. He took his bag, before extinguishing the flames with a snap of his fingers. Then, he slowly began to walk Hongjoong out of the cave.
"Careful, my friend. Kira was blessed by the stars. You are now a being of shadows. Maybe not as powerful as him, but there will also be other weaknesses. I would take a wild guess and say that light might not be your comrade from now on."
Hongjoong stepped put into the nightly air first and breathed it in deeply. He could feel the wind in his face again, and while it was no sea breeze, it was enough, for now. A thin blanket of snow was layered over the lands, and singular white crystals tumbled from the dark skies.
"Bang, you literally brought a man back from the dead. Said man will survive a few rays of the sun just fine." He smiled brightly at his companion and then looked around in the empty plains that were dotted with bits of whitish forest.
"You said it's that cave... That means Seonghwa's home is near, right?"
"Aye."
"Then let's go there. Maybe they can help me get him back."
Yongguk wordlessly led the way.