Sure enough, the water had barely a few inches of visibility, though sometimes it was worse. The only thing keeping the seven groups of eight together to perform their set objectives was an orange line that Aden could only see on the brief occasions visibility cleared enough to see the blurred color.

After retrieving their dummy, Aden’s group returned to the surface in third place. Henry had a shit-eating grin on his face, an immediate tell that his group had been the first to successfully surface.

Despite coming in third, Captain Kohler had nothing but pride and admiration in his eyes as the group made it to shore, his hands clapping together in congratulations. Although, only one of the seven groups wasn’t greeted in that same matter. After a malfunction to one of their eight comrades, the group decided to press on believing the malfunction wasn’t dire enough to call off their mission. Thankfully, the malfunction didn’t matter until after she’d already surfaced, but when Naeem and his crew looked over the equipment, it was discovered that she was leaking oxygen rapidly. The tank was nearly empty.

After the scolding that publicly humiliated the group of eight, the lecture carried on in a comparatively boring yet familiar manner. Near the end, a headache had begun forming at the base of Aden’s skull and he groaned at the thought that he still had to climb several flights of stairs before he could even make it to the aspirin in his car.

“How’s about a drink tonight, yeah? I have an evening class that gets out at four but then I’m free after that,” Henry offers, coming to a comfortable walk beside his friend. “Maybe go back to yours and—” he paused, looking around, “—smoke a jay I been savin’ just for this day.”

Any other day, Aden would be reprimanding his friend for smoking. Between the nightmare, his pointless chase, and a back to back endurance test, Aden could use a break. “Uh, yeah. That sounds pretty good, actually,” he answered. Aden knew smoking wasn’t exactly good in this profession but he was too worked up from the day’s events that he set the concern to the side. He deserved to have a drink with his best friend.

“Fantastic!” Henry said exuberantly, clapping his hands before raising them in victory. Aden had never conceded to smoking this quickly so the Irishman’s reaction wasn’t entirely unexpected.

“Fuck, I need an aspirin,” Aden whined as they crested the top of the canyon stairs.

“‘Nother headache?” Henry asked, concern pinching his brows.

Aden nodded, reaching into his center console and retrieving the pain pills. He swallowed four and admitted, “They’re becoming more frequent.”

“Aye,” he agreed, likely thinking back over the last two weeks. “You could say that.”

“I gotta go home and get a run in,” Aden said, changing the subject.

“Course you do.”

“Do you want to ride together or meet up there?”

Henry shrugged.

“Helpful,” Aden drawled. “I’ll meet you there, then. We can head back to the apartment and smoke that jay you’re so excited about and if you need to spend the night, you’ll have a couch.”

“Sounds like a good enough plan. See you later, then,” Henry affirmed, shuffling into his truck.

Aden followed suit and settled down for the long drive home. Unfortunately, he lived closer to the inner city, thirty miles or more to the Forest District in any direction. Greensnake Canyon hung even further back into the depths of dark evergreens and yellowing aspens. He didn’t necessarily dislike the drive, but the loneliness often plagued his mind if he wasn’t vigilant enough to keep it at bay. He tried distracting himself by running through his plan for this evening, but one can only repeat get home, go for a run, take a shower, head out so many times before it just becomes white noise in the background of whatever thoughts they tried to suppress in the first place.

He’s close…

“Fuck off,” Aden said aloud as the heat of the bird breathed against his back. Quiet stillness followed the words and Aden felt relief at the bird’s immediate surrender. It didn’t happen often.

That didn’t change the feeling of deep melancholy he felt as he made his way home, and he found himself gasping for freedom by the time he stepped into his apartment.

Endeavoring to be on time for once, Aden quickly changed into a pair of shorts and grabbed a bottle of water from the case beside the door before heading out. He stopped at the base of the stairs to insert his earbuds and quickly chose a song before deciding on his route. Following the natural incline of the city, his plotted route would ensure he’d be fighting against gravity to keep his momentum and maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to forget what happened this morning.

After a decade of trying to put as much distance as he could between him and Logan, Aden’s mind was plagued with flashes of Logan’s life. Moments that indicated the younger man was here in Blue Fields yet ever elusive. Aden could never make it to the scene before Logan disappeared into the vast belly of the city and it almost made it easy to give up on the endeavor entirely. Almost.

It was always worse when reflections were involved. Logan seemed even skinnier every time Aden caught him looking into a mirror and he almost always either looked like he was on the brink of a mental breakdown or so high he wouldn’t even know what that was. Visible sections of his pale skin were often laden with bruises, some of which led to horrifically vivid scenarios Aden detested even thinking about. Despite consistently bearing witness to Logan’s state of overall health, Aden would never know how he got there or how long he’d be trapped in the darkness of Blue Fields’ underbelly.

So lost in thought, Aden almost didn’t see the fist barreling toward his face. He reacted out of instinct, immediately putting his hands up and bracing himself for the blow.

It never came.

Wary of the potential threat, Aden slowly looked over his squared fists and saw…nothing. No one was there.

He shook his head of the delusion and played the track that had accidentally paused. He hated when it did that, especially since he paid out the ass for the service. But it was what he had so he shrugged off the aggravation and continued forward.

Aden only made it a few more yards before passing a seemingly empty alleyway, an image of himself jogging passed it reeling through his head. In the vision, Aden’s amber eyes were focused ahead with a slight scowl touching his lips from his earlier aggravation. The dried sweat and grime made his hair look shiny in the worst way possible, but that wasn't the point. Logan had just witnessed Aden jogging passed the alleyway he currently resided in.

Aden’s knee crackled in a protest that he ignored as he improperly pivoted and immediately made his way into the dark alleyway. Sure, light made it into the entrance, but only a few yards in and towering buildings made it impossible for anything else to illuminate the long stretch of nothingness. Only the small sliver of light at the other end even lent credence to this being a through path. It was only because of that sliver that Aden could make out the shadowed people that blotted the light out here and there as they moved.

It wasn’t just the vision that had Aden convinced Logan was there beneath the mass of other bodies. Dancing over Aden's skin, down his arms and stretching passed his fingertips, the flames reached desperately toward the group. They only did that when the hound was near.

“Logan?” Aden called out tentatively. He knew there were at least three individuals blocking the light at the end of the alley. A vague lumpy form was grounded at their feet, though with the horrendous smell of rot riding the breeze, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if it were to be trash.

It wasn’t trash. Aden knew in the depths of his heart that these people had hurt Logan bad enough that he hadn’t even moved since being called out to.

In an instant, Aden felt his blood boil with a heat mirrored in the now-enraged flames. He knew they would do nothing to light the way—no one else had the displeasure of seeing them like he did—but he didn’t care what was in his way. He’d blow through whatever came between him and that huddled form on the ground.

I shall lend you sight so that you may incinerate them…

Aden didn’t care enough to acknowledge the voice, only vaguely realizing the sudden clarity he was given. It was immediately clear that his gut-wrenching theory was no longer a theory. Sure enough, Logan laid unconscious at the side of the alley. Bruises littered every visible bit of skin like watercolor on canvas, and…there was a lot of bare skin to paint upon. Wrapped around his head was what Aden could only assume was Logan’s shirt, the dingy white stained with crimson indicative of a head wound. At his midsection were a variety of pink and red crescents where teeth had bitten him and where some of them had drawn blood. His pants had been unbuckled but that seemed to be as far as the trio—incredibly clear with the help of the phoenix—had gotten before Aden interrupted.

Aden knew Logan needed medical attention as quickly as possible. With his ability to see properly restored, he also knew by the expressions worn carelessly over the expressions of these three individuals that he had to deal with them, first. Two were undoubtedly older adults, one looking old enough to have children Logan’s age. The third seemed closer to college age, though you wouldn’t think it with the nasty sneer he felt so comfortable displaying.

“What is this?” Aden asked as stern but calmly as he could.

“What’s it to ya?”

“I’m with the Blue Fields Fire Department,” Aden lied as his eyes flitted over the three men. None of them knew he could see them, none of them knew they were being assessed. “I saw your friend on my evening jog,” he continued, pointing to the opening that he entered, “and figured you could use the help.”

The youngest couldn’t hold back a snort of disbelief. “Man, fuck off. He’s just a whore, we’re just—”

“Do you ever shut your fucking mouth? This is why—”

“Quiet,” the oldest snapped and that was the first time Aden noticed their expressions change. Turning his full attention onto Aden, the man said calmly, “We are under mutual agreement with this young gentleman here. We’ve paid in full, and I have no intentions of letting someone stick their head where it doesn’t belong.”

Aden felt the bird flare, but he knew it wasn’t in response to the words this imbecile spoke. No. Just off to the side, running over him like streams of ink, were the tethers of the hound. They seemed weaker, slipping over the ground slowly instead of soaring through the air with the grace Aden was more accustomed to.

Kill them, the bird hissed vehemently as the first tendril made contact with its flames. Burn them to ashes!

Aden shook his head to clear the voice, realizing the men had made advancements while he was distracted. Squaring up for a fight, he watched the men approach him with slow, cautious movements. Aden didn’t understand why they were taking their time until he remembered that he was the only one gifted with sight. An unfair advantage, perhaps, but did fairness truly matter when those before have wrought nothing but pain? Aden didn’t think so.

The older man was going to be Aden’s biggest problem so he prepared himself to take him out. A single, incapacitating blow would be best but Aden doubted he could pull that off with someone the same size as him, if not bigger. Instead, he focused on the man’s feet. Getting him off balance would give Aden enough time to improvise with the other two.

Before any blows could be exchanged, an eruption of darkness dimmed even Aden’s ability to see.

“He fucking had a smoke bomb?!” one of them shouted in confusion.

“I don’t know, I can’t see shit!”

Aden’s fury was tempered by his confusion before the bird snapped him out of it.

Look, you imbecile!

Irritated he didn’t have time to retort, Aden looked back to where Logan’s shivering form still lay. Beside him, twin tails tucked neatly in front of its paws was the hound. Despite the darkness, its exposed skull had a white glow to it, and the orbs of red within otherwise empty sockets seemed to beg as Aden hesitantly broke away from the continuing shouts of panic and confusion.

As soon as the bird’s flames grew close, the tendrils shrunk back and the hound disappeared like smoke on the wind. Knowing he didn’t have much time, Aden carefully pulled Logan from the ground. His body was freezing against Aden’s warm chest and he laid so limp in Aden’s arms that it warranted a pulse check. It was there, but weak. Incredibly weak.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Aden said, the full realization finally smacking into him as he exited the alleyway. In his arms was the most broken and abused version of Logan he never wanted to imagine. Logan was supposed to have had a full life with his loving foster family, not stranded and alone like this. “You’re going to be okay. I’m-I’ll get you to the hospital. Just hold—”

“…No hos-pital.”

His voice crackled and broke through barely-parted, chapped lips and it almost stopped Aden in his tracks. But he kept walking, his hold on Logan tightening.

“No hospital,” he murmured quietly into Logan’s bloody hair.

At the sound of agreement, Logan’s body grew heavier and a stuttered sigh worked its way through his throat.

Aden carefully cradled Logan’s wounded head against his neck until they made it to the car. As part of his studies, Aden was always required to have his essential first aid kit on hand. This one was a spare, the hefty duffel bag packed with the cheaper versions of Aden’s permanent, branded equipment.

After settling Logan down in the back seat and covering him with a plush blanket, Aden set to work gently untangling Logan’s shirt from his matted hair. There was a concerning lack of movement on Logan’s part, especially as Aden’s fingers peeled the fabric from the gash at the top of his scalp.

“Oh, Logan…how could they do this to you?”

Of course, Logan didn’t answer. Six stitches later and he still hadn’t moved, though his breathing had become more regular. Aden washed out the wound as best as he could but it was growing harder to work as the sun began sinking below the inner city skyscrapers.

“That’ll have to do for now,” Aden mumbled to himself as he buckled Logan into the seat as best as he could. “Hang tight, Logan. I’ll get you home.”

I’ll get you home…. Aden thought. I’ll keep you safe. I…I promise.