Between the Black and Grey (Starlight Brigade AU)

24 - Breakthrough

Over the next few days Widget (thankfully) started to improve after the disaster that was his first training session. He was by no means an expert, but his sudden obsession with doing exactly what Sung did lest he cause another accident definitely made his progress faster. Nad had even made them a training room, though it took a while to erect since he had to, in his words: "disconnect it from himself." Sung was willing to wait the extra time if it meant that Widget could safely make mistakes without injuring him and Nad.

No one really questioned the chest-burn, attributing it to yet another unexplainable part of Nad's very existence. Sung's involvement was deemed coincidence, and Sung was happy to keep it that way if it avoided having to explain the whole dream situation. Nad didn't seem to care.

He was still very reserved with the brigade. He could almost always be found in the control room totally unresponsive with concentration, and when he wasn't there he was in his room passing out from the exhaustion of his extensive piloting, which obviously required the gem and exerted a lot of energy. And on top of that, he was always dutiful to the brigade's needs, making sure they were fed, had something to do, had clean bed sheets. His neverending work was evident in his tired eyes, but no amount of persuasion could convince him to take a break. He was never in the dining room, never in the communal bay, and never smiling. Come day eleven since leaving Earth, and Sung was getting extremely worried.

After poking his head into Nad's room that morning and finding it empty, he decided it was time to put his foot down. As everyone kept saying, he was the only one who could ever get through to Nad. And so, despite his plans to slip in another training session with Widget before breakfast, Sung quickly got himself dressed and hurried to the control room.

To his astonishment, that too was empty. Sung looked around the room as if he would just appear out of the walls, which honestly wasn't too farfetched. But Nad was definitely not there. Sung frowned to himself, wondering where on the ship he might go other than his room. As the thought entered his mind, a spark of blue caught his eye. The archway of one of the many corridors leading out from the central control room was glowing, a consistent pulse of blue light tracing around it's rim. Approaching it, the pulses moved further into the corridor, and Sung shrugged; he might as well follow it.

The winding black corridors lead Sung to the observatory, a fairly new room that Nad had made specially for Widget who, back home, had apparently made a hobby out of stargazing. It was a transparent sphere with an equally as transparent floor running through its centre, so you could look all around you. The only indication that the walls were actually walls was the faint blue swirls that ran consistent throughout the entire ship's structure. Sung walked in, confused why he'd been lead here.

Nad was stood in the centre, eyes gleaming with starlight as his entire body seemed to glow. He didn't notice Sung enter at first, completely in his own world, until he turned following a shooting star.

His shining eyes landed on Sung, and for a moment the two just stared at one another. Exhaustion painted the boy's features, but Sung observed something new in his countenance, something scared. It was freakishly reminiscent of when he'd first landed in Sung's care, an expression that had seemed so far away until now. And considering Nad's stoic mask he'd been sporting it was a harsh reminder of how fragile he still was underneath.

"I found them."

Nad's voice startled Sung. At first he didn't understand what he meant, but then it hit him like a ton of bricks. His mouth went suddenly dry. Nad had found the spiders. They were close to ending it.

He almost smiled, but Nad's expression caught his attention again. He looked absolutely petrified. And for a moment thoughts of revenge were gone from Sung's mind; he could so easily abolish that aim and tell Nad to turn back. But then what, he asked himself. A lifetime of looking over their shoulders? He brushed his sympathy away. No, this was the only way.