Cinco stood at six feet. He sported a white duster jacket with black lapels, gold buttons shaped like stars. His style of jacket was similar to Bijal's, with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, cuffs black, and held in place by silver clips.

​

The hem of his jacket was embroidered with vibrant Huichol zigzag patterns in shades of red, black, white and yellow.

He had a warm bronze complexion that seemed to glow against the fire of the current. Just like Bijal, his hair was neck length and a shocking, pure white.

​

Zorn was beginning to see a pattern here with the long jackets, the guns, and the white hair. Then he noticed the exact same necklace Bijal wore. Instead, this one rested over a black shirt instead of a bare chest.

​

Is Bijal a type of Ranger himself? he wondered.

Cinco took a step forward, the black fringe on his black chaps swaying rhythmically with his stride. The wide brim of his black stetson, banded with the same zigzag Huichol pattern as his jacket, obscured his eyes. He gripped the brim and came to a dead halt, not uttering a word. The chest length of his stampede straps blew against the Magic Current's ferocious winds.

​

Zorn felt the weight of the silence. It was intimidating. Was he in the man's way? He shot a look at Khor, who seemed just as tense.

​“You’re not slick. I see you, Iron Veil people,” Cinco announced. “Leave me to my work. I ain't breaking no laws here.”

​Zorn and Khor exchanged a confused glance. He had to be mistaken. Khor cleared his throat to correct him.

​“We’re actually Fae Star–” Khor started.

​“Not you. I know that just by looking at you. I mean them,” Cinco interrupted. He pointed a gloved finger past them, toward the thick shrubbery where shadows shifted unnaturally.

​Zorn and Khor spun around.

​Zorn’s heart sank to the floor. How the hell had he not sensed them? His eyes widened at the realization that he’d been stalked so effortlessly.

​Star Rangers really can see through anything, Zorn mused, his mind racing. 

His fingers trembled from the sheer shock of it. This was the true capability of a Ranger. Jade and her crew emerged from hiding, looking thoroughly annoyed at being spotted.

​“We just want the boy in red,” Jade stated harshly. She held her hand out, a cold demand for compliance. “You will not stabilize that Mystic Current until you hand him over.”

​

Cinco tilted his head.

​“If you hold me back from this current any longer, you're risking every life in the area before the corruption spreads,” he said. His voice was calm, 

but it carried the strength of a landslide. He took a glance at Zorn, noticing a red, sparkly aura around him. His eyes narrowed a bit with recognition. 

“Then just let us take the boy and you can freely stabilize that Mystic Current. We don't want a problem with you,” Jade responded.

“Then you got a problem now,” he said as he reached for his other gun holstered on his thigh, twirling it into his palm and pointed it straight at her. 

Zorn realized this gun did not look as mystical as the one in his right hand. His heart raced with worry as he picked up it was a real gun. 

​Is he actually refusing to hand me over? Zorn wondered, a spark of hope flickering through his panic.

“You dare threaten the military?!” Jade yelled.

“You negotiate people's lives by interfering with my work and expect me to hand over brethren?,” Cinco grinned.

Brethren?! Zorn's eyes widened. Does he know?! He looked down at his gloved hand with the hidden glyph.

Jade let out a sharp, mocking laugh that didn't reach her eyes. She signaled her men, and the air filled with the heavy metallic scrape of claymores being drawn from back-sheaths.

“Brethren? You're protecting a fugitive based on some delusional sense of kinship? she spat. “He's a celestial. A Star Curse. He's a walking catastrophe, just like that current behind you.”

Cinco didn't flinch. He adjusted his grip on the twin revolvers, his posture low and steady. The orange wisps of the dying field began to lash out, whipped into a frenzy by the escalating tension. 

“The only catastrophe I see is a bunch of tin plated soldiers standing in the way of a man trying to stop a leak in the world,” Cinco said. He didn't look back at Zorn, but his presence felt like a shield. “Blondie, take the kid and get behind the Light Horse. If things get messy, get on it and leave.” 

Khor grabbed Zorn by the shoulder, his grip tightening and urgent. “You heard him. Move!”

Zorn stumbled back, his boots dragging through the scorched, brittle grass. His heart thrummed like a trapped bird. Brethren. The word kept looping in his mind. Is it our connection to the stars somehow?

“I'm not leaving him to fight them alone!” Zorn protested, even as Khor shoved him toward the shimmering horse of light. 

“He's a Star Ranger, Zorn! He's not fighting them,” Khor hissed, his eyes fixed on the Iron Veil soldiers. “He's managing the situation. There is a difference!”

Jade lunged forward, her steel boots cracking the dry earth. “Take the boy! Kill the Ranger if you have to!”

Cinco's grin widened, revealing a flash of white teeth beneath the shadow of his stetson. He raised the mystical pistol in his right hand toward the screaming current and leveled the cold iron of his left toward the charging soldiers.

“Wrong choice, preciosa,” Cinco murmured. 

He pulled both triggers at once.

The sound roared after the bang. From the right, a concentrated bolt of stabilizing magic hammered into the rift, forcing chaotic orange energy to collapse inward with a sickening pop.

From the left, a thunderous crack of gunpowder sent a warning shot whistling inches past Jade’s ear, the sheer force of the wind from the bullet throwing her off balance. 

The ground buckled. The orange current, now compressed by Cinco's magic, began to pulse a violent, rhythmic throb.

“Zorn! Look at the Mystic Current!” Khor yelled over the din.

Zorn squinted, his vision swimming. Beneath the feet of the Iron Veil crew, the glowing purple and blue rivers of energy were turning a jagged, angry crimson. The Ranger was rerouting the overflow.

“The current!” Zorn screaming, pointing. “It's going to vent under them!”

The orange currented vented and exploded.

The ground beneath Jade’s feet shrieked as the rerouted energy tore through the surface. Jagged pillars of orange light erupted like geysers, tossing the Iron Veil soldiers into the air like rag dolls. The heat was immense, a physical wall of pressure that sent a wave of scorched air rolling across the field.

“Hold on!” Khor yelled, throwing his arm over Zorn as they reached the light horse.

The horse of light didn't spook. It stood like a beacon of calm in the center of the storm, its hooves anchored into the earth by shimmering threads.  Zorn scrambled onto the saddle, his eyes locked on the silhouette of the Star Ranger.

Cinco stood his ground in the middle of the upheaval. He looked like a conductor leading a symphony of destruction. He spun his mystical pistol, catching the rebounding energy and firing shot after shot into the main current, stitching the ground of the field back together with bolts of condensed magic.

Jade slammed into the grass several yards back. She rolled and came up snarling, her bodysuit scorched and her armor sparking with static discharge. She looked at her men, most of whom were groaning and struggling to stand amidst the craters.

"Cinco, is it?!" she screamed over the roar of the wind. "You've just signed your death warrant! The Iron Veil will hunt you to the ends of Varnaiya!"

Cinco didn’t even look at her. He kept his focus on the pulsing current, his lips moving in that quiet, rhythmic chant. With one final, thunderous BLAM, he shot the last of the stabilizing magic bullet into the orange mass.

The light imploded.

A vacuum of silence followed, so sudden it made Zorn's ears pop. The burning grass flickered out, leaving only blackened circles and the faint scent of fire. The cracks in the earth began to pull shut, sealed by the cooling magic.

Cinco lowered his guns. He exhaled a long plume of smoke, then finally turned his head toward Jade.

“Tell your masters the Star Ranger says to get in line for my head,” Cinco said, his voice flat and dangerous. “And if you interfere with my work again, I won't be aimin’ for your ears.” 

Jade’s jaw tightened. She looked at the Ranger, then at the glowing horse where Zorn sat, and finally at her broken crew. She knew she was outnumbered. 

“This isn't over, celestial,” she hissed at Zorn. “The law doesn't forget!”

She signaled her men, and they beat a hurried, limping retreat back down to the dock, dragging their heavy claymores behind them.

Zorn let out a breath of relief. He slid off the horse, his legs feeling like jelly. He looked at Cinco. Who was busy wiping the soot off his white duster jacket.

“Brethren,” Zorn whispered, stepping toward him.

“Why did you call me that?”

Cinco holstered his revolvers with a flourish and turned around. He reached for his necklace and gripped the aquamarine gem, the crystal catching the light.

“Becauee we both are connected to the heaven, kid,” Cinco said. He tipped his stetson, his violet eyes softened just a fraction. “And because I recognize what kind of celestial you are by your aura. You're one of them zodiacal souls, yeah? You're rare, but hunted unjustly.”

“We came out here to find you. Donal wants to commission you,” Khor chimed in. 

Cinco chuckled. “That cheap bastard?” he smiled. “What's he want?”

“That Mystic Current was destabilized because that was the very spot the Eclipsed Moon God appeared and disturbed the balance of this land's magic” Khor said. “We need your insight to help us track him down.”

Cinco's smile vanished faster than the smoke from his gun.

Zorn noticed his vibe change. It surprised him. For the first time meeting him, seeing someone so confident and stable looked unsure and stiff at the thought of tracking Brennan.

Can he not do this?!