Solar gritted his teeth as he exited their makeshift medical room. His brothers parted ways for him as he made his way to the door.

Except for one.

"Where exactly are you going, Solar?"

The light manipulator stopped in his tracks and whirled to face the owner of the voice. His golden eyes met the scarlet ones of the oldest brother.

"You know exactly where I'm going, Hali. And you won't be able to stop me," Solar said through gritted teeth.

Hali glared at the rest of the brothers, who took it as their cue to leave. Duri, however, just gave a sad smile to the both of them before going back to Gempa's bedside.

"I do know where you're going, Solar. And I can't let you do that."

"Why not?" Solar hissed at him. "He nearly got Gempa killed! Don't you want revenge?!"

"I do," Hali said quietly. "But you're not in the place to do that."

"If not me, then who? I'm the most powerful here, I can kill him single-handedly."

"At the cost of your own life," Hali retorted. "The seven of us barely defeated him, and Gempa's fatally injured from the fight."

"Then are we just gonna let him go like that?!" Solar practically shouted at the lightning elemental.

"No, because I'm the one who's gonna go get him."

Solar snorted. "Absolutely not. You can't defeat him."

"I can, and I will." Hali stared at Solar in the eye. "You're powerful, I know that. You're the most powerful of all of us. That's why I want you, no, I need you, to stay here and protect them. I need you to help Gempa keep them in line. Because you're the only one I trust for this."

Hali stepped back from Solar and readied his two red lightning swords. "Besides, if I go down, I'll make sure to bring the enemy with me."

Before Solar could speak, Hali dashed away.

The light elemental stared at the open door in shock, his mind processing what Hali told him.

"Solar?" Duri asked softly from the door. "What happened? I heard some shouting annd when I went out, Hali was gone."

"I..." Solar didn't know what to say. "If I'm not back in an hour, go to the location where we last fought Retak'ka."

"What are you gonna do?" Duri asked worriedly. "We nearly lost Gempa. I don't wanna lose you too."

"I'm sorry, Duri. But I promise I'll come back." With that, Solar light sped away.

When Solar arrived at the battlefield, the first thing that he saw were fallen debris. Fear gnawed his heart and he dashed through the building, trying to find his oldest brother.

It was too late. Hali's dead body was lying on the ground with a gaping hole on his stomach. Beside him was Retak'ka's similarly dead body with a bloody lightning sword stabbed deep into his heart.

Solar choked back a sob and reached for the body with trembling fingers. Ignoring the blood, he caressed the pale face of his dead brother.

He shouldn't have let him go. Or at least, he shouldn't have let him go alone. Now, Hali was dead, and he's partially at fault.

Remembering his promise to Duri, he stood up and wiped his tears away. There will be time to grieve later.

He made his way to Retak'ka's body and gave it a hard kick. He then pointed his gloved hand at the body, his fingertips glowing gold.

"You bastard," Solar hissed angrily. "I'll kill you a million times over for doing this to us. To Gempa. To me."

He gathered his energy at his fingertips and shot the body with a powerful light shot that completely obliterated the body.

"You won't be able to harm us ever again." With that, Solar sped home, carrying Hali's body with him.

When he arrived at their house, he stumbled over his feet and fell on his knees. He gently set down Hali's body on the ground and cried.

"Solar?" He heard someone call his name but he was too distraught to respond.

He heard more voices, panicking, distraught voices, and he knew that they finally saw Hali's dead body.

Someone tried to remove his hands from Hali's body, but he resisted. The person was adamant, however, as he tugged more forcefully on his hands. Solar looked up and met Duri’s green eyes.

"You can let him go now," the nature elemental told him softly.

"I-I-I can't," Solar whispered. "I-It's my f-fault. I let him go. I'm sorry. I-I'm sorry I couldn't s-save him."

Duri finally managed to remove Solar's hands on Hali's body. He asked Ice to move it to their makeshift hospital before tuning back to comfort his younger brother.

"But he's dead now, right? Retak'ka, I mean?" Duri asked him to which he nodded.

"Hali killed him. I obliterated his body."

"Good." Duri's voice was like steel. "Gempa won't like what happened, but at least Retak'ka's dead now."

The nature elemental focuses his eyes on the sobbing figure of his youngest brother. "Did Hali tell you anything before he went?"

That made Solar stop crying. Hali did. He practically asked Solar to take his place. Because Hali trusted him. And Solar couldn't just betray his trust. His last wish.

"Yes, yes he did."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well, Hali's dead. Tbh, this was just a short prompt, and I don't know how the story went this long. I just couldn't stop writing.

Hope you like it, though.

Lovelots,

Glace, the Queen of Angst