Not Gonna Die (A Skybrine Fanfic)

|Chapter 26| No strings attached

I neglected to put something at the very end of last chapter that would have made everything a bit more tense but oh well.

          Jerome blinked his eyes several times, clearing the black spots from his vision as Adam's scream still rang in his ears. In the sudden darkness and silence of the night (the burning houses had been doused completely, perhaps by the energy released in that lightning bolt), it took him several seconds to be able to comprehend the scene. Adam was lying spread-eagled in the middle of the street, his clothes smoking, completely still. His golden sword was nowhere to be seen.

          Herobrine was kneeling next to him, his white sword glowing softly in his right hand as his left was pressed against Adam's neck, feeling for a pulse. After several moments, his hand moved to Adam's forehead and - maybe Jerome just imagined it - he gave a sigh. He stabbed his sword into the ground and flopped over onto his back, looking up at the sky with his hands laced behind his head and one leg hooked over the other. The thunderclouds were breaking up and the stars were beginning to shine through again.

          It took several minutes for the recruits to settle down, which wasn't a surprise considering that most of those present had never seen a magic fight before and all of them were still disoriented from that mammoth lightning bolt. They started to split up, some heading for their homes to sleep the whole thing off and others helping to start cleaning the street or transport the injured to the hospital, and all of them cast fugitive glances at Herobrine, lying on the rough cobblestone street as if he was in the middle of a forest somewhere next to a calming, bubbling stream.

          Jerome, Ty, Jason and a less-pale Seto were the first to approach Herobrine, all of them unconsciously making sure that their weapons were ready at their sides. Seto watched Adam carefully as they approached. He was completely motionless, the smoke rising less from his clothes now. His chest rose slightly and dropped, then rose again.

          "Before you ask," Herobrine said as they came closer, although he hadn't yet looked at them, "he's not dead."

          "So are you done trying to kill him then?" Ty asked harshly, stopping a few steps away and crossing his arms over his chest.

          Herobrine gave a chuckle and pushed himself up to a seated position. His clothes were bloodstained but Seto noticed that the visible cuts on him were healing in a linear fashion, very faintly glowing white as they did so. He gave them a small grin. "He's not a danger to people anymore," he said. "So I have no reason to hurt him."

          "Wait, you mean... his magic's gone?" Seto asked.

          "Don't ask me how 'cause I don't know. But I doubt he'll get those headaches anymore."

          "Well that's a relie- wait, how did you know that he had headaches?" Jason asked.

          Herobrine shrugged. "Lucky guess," he said, standing up. With a grunt, he picked up Adam from the ground. Adam's head lolled back but his hand twitched. Yup, he was alive all right. Herobrine carried him with a strange amount of ease to the makeshift infirmary, ignoring the many stares the recruits gave him and put Adam down in one of the few spare spaces left. A few medics made a beeline for him as soon as Herobrine moved away and quickly discovered that although he was covered in blood and his clothes were slashed, his wounds had healed, leaving only a few light scars behind. Quentin however, was hovering next to Ian, tightening the straps of his leg split.

          "My leg's stuffed, isn't it?" Ian mumbled, his arms crossed.

          Quentin gave a sigh through his nose. "I can't be sure of the damage, but from the amount of force it took to get it back into place... At best, you'll have a bad limp."