Not Gonna Die (A Skybrine Fanfic)

|Chapter 18| Making decisions

          Ian, Ty, Mitch and Seto sat in the room that joined their private bedrooms, talking amongst themselves. Seto had returned from the sorcerer's library late the night before and the others were now quizzing him on what the sorcerer's headquarters actually looked like, although they were getting frustratingly little information.

          "I've already told you, I can't say anything," Seto was saying, holding back a laugh. "It's a closely guarded secret, we don't even tell apprentices about it until they've passed their first test."

          "Oh come on Seto," Mitch complained. "We won't tell anyone!"

          Seto shook his head resolutely. "Nope. Can't do that Mitch."

          Further protests were cut off by the door opening. Anne stepped in, closely followed by Hero who closed the door after them and leaned against the wall beside it, arms crossed over his chest.

          "You found something?" Ty asked instantly, standing up from his chair.

          Hero gave a sigh. "There is a way to remove Adam's magic so that it doesn't hurt him anymore and so he can't use it, but it's dangerous. Because there's no way to remove the magic from him completely, there's a chance that his body will attack it and that it will either kill him or control him. But if we do nothing, he will die."

          "What will happen if it controls him?" Seto asked warily, also standing.

          "I don't know," Herobrine admitted.

          "His best chance of survival is if the magic is removed, right?" Ian asked.

          Hero ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know that either. I'm... not sure how much stress it would put on his body but he's very weak. The stress could kill him."

          "But if we leave it, he will die no matter what," Ty said.

          "It's not a great situation."

          The four friends glanced at each other. Hero muttered something about waiting outside and left the room. Anne put her hand around the door just before it was about to close.

          "I'd suggest making a decision sooner rather than later," she said quietly before leaving and closing the door behind her.

          Seto sighed and flopped back into his chair, running a hand through his hair. Mitch started tapping his foot on the ground as Ty started pacing.

           "There's no choice to be made," Ian said calmly as if there wasn't a life on the line. "We have to try to remove the magic. It's the only way he'll live-"

           "Did you hear what could happen?" Mitch asked incredulously. "'It'll either kill him or control him'. Neither of those two are any good, Ian."

          "That's only if his body attacks it."

          "You don't know what happens when magic is put under pressure, do you?" Seto said quietly, his voice neutral. "When magic is under pressure, the result is usually explosive. If his body does attack it, he'll be a danger not only to himself but to others as well. He might accidentally kill-"

          "What does it matter?!" Ty yelled. "This is Adam we're talking about!"

          "Ty, one life isn't worth sacrificing many, we've discussed this before," Seto said. "It doesn't matter who that person is-"

          "But it's Adam!"

          "Ty," Mitch tried to reason. "All of us are Adam's friends, none of us want him to die. But when we decided to make peace between armies, we promised to protect people. And that means..." He couldn't say the words and he looked at Seto and Ian to help.