His thoughts should be about how grateful he is.
Now, he’s much harder to kill or he will be whenever he recovers. Azure would rather not think about why he’d forced energy into Ocher, but he’s almost sure that it had something to do with the way Ocher was looking at him in fear with the intention of escaping. Some part of him couldn’t bear to let Ocher go, so he had bound him.
Unfortunately, whatever other side effects may appear, Ocher will have to deal with them alone for a little longer. His own body has reached its limits for now and they're stranded enough that he knows Ocher will still be here when he recovers. He can rest without worry. Azure stretches out, letting the warmth from the hot sand seep into his body, later he’ll pull Ocher back to him.
◆◆◆
Azure sits up after what feels like hours, the sun is beginning to dip below the horizon casting long shadows in the sand and his body feels like it has finally synchronized to the influx of energy.
Ocher is still resting, although his eyes are open now. His body is likely still struggling to accommodate the changes. Azure stands and walks towards him. The minute Ocher catches sight of him, his eyes widen, and he sits up to hastily scoot away. “Stay back, Azure!”
He resists the urge to laugh at Ocher’s attempt to give him commands when he can’t even stand. Not like he’d listen either way. He reaches the other boy, grabbing his hand and tightening his grip when Ocher tries to pull away. “Just give up, you’re not going anywhere,” Azure says, dragging him closer even as Ocher futilely digs his heels into the soft sand. “What are you so afraid of?”
“Did you forget the part where you were possessed?” He shouts.
“I wasn’t possessed. It was a transitional period.”
“Or where you tried to set me on fire from the inside! I’m still in pain!”
“Ocher, I wasn’t trying to kill you,” he explains patiently. “If I wanted to do that, you wouldn’t even be here right now.”
“You’re not helping, Azure! I still hate you!”
He shrugs, so what? “Your body isn’t accepting the energy flow as easy as mine, you’ll adjust.”
“What did you do to me?”
“Nothing.” Ocher tries to yank his hand away one more time and Azure rolls his eyes, then flips Ocher’s hand over and sinks his teeth into the tender underside of his wrist hard enough to break skin.
Ocher screams. “You monster, let go!”
Azure grins, mumbling around the wrist in his mouth, “If you keep moving, it’ll hurt worse.”
He grows still and Azure can feel him seething, but the fear is gone, replaced with simmering anger. “Trying to poison me now?”
“I’m not a snake.”
“Debatable.” Azure lets go and Ocher pulls his wrist back to inspect the damage as he watches.
“I don’t see what the problem is,” Azure comments idly.
“You don’t see what the problem is?” Ocher eyes narrow in disbelief. “You nearly killed me, you stabbed Dale who was nothing except nice to us, and you started burning their home. I know life isn’t fair, but that was a lot for innocent people.”
“So?” Azure moves faster than Ocher can react and pins him to the ground by his wrists. “No one’s seriously hurt and I kept you, didn’t I?” Ocher looks away from him. “To stay with me is what you wanted, right? You should be the happiest one here.”
“You have...issues.”
Azure presses a kiss to his forehead, “And you don’t? Bury the problems you have with me, we have things to do and I didn’t take you for a coward, backing out when things surprise you.”
“That was more than a surprise.”
“Barely.” Azure shifts into a sitting position, resting his weight on Ocher’s thighs. “Are you still with me or not?”
Ocher sighs, “Fine.” He knows they’re both aware Ocher still has nowhere else to go, nor any way off this island if it’s not with him.
“That’s a good boy!” He grins, ruffling Ocher’s light brown waves. “I knew you’d make the right choice.”
“Shut up, Azure and get off me.”
“Whatever you want.”
◆◆◆
The ship passes back through to pick them up three days later. Perfect timing because their food supply was at an end. Some of the crew give them odd looks when they realize Irisa is no longer with them, but no one pries. None of them were authorized to be on the ship anyway.
Azure's eager to try out the strength of his new abilities and the port town where the ship will dock is the perfect place to experiment. There’s an established base located there to give their navy quick access to the ocean. If they put a halt to their operations there and force them to rebuild, it will be an excellent test run and it will delay any potential invasions to Meio. They can consider it restitution for their amplifier since they don’t want to do any fighting themselves.
There’s some hesitation from Ocher when he informs him of their new plans, but a few threats and he reluctantly agrees which he would have eventually, but Azure didn’t feel like waiting for Ocher to think through all the reasons why he should be supported.
Once they dock, he drags Ocher after him towards the Navy compound. Their ships are docked near the ocean. The buildings, however, are a little farther inland. Similar to the previous compound in Vale where he found Ocher, a gated fence surrounds the entire area and gray buildings no more than three stories high peek above it.
There’s one main entrance and two soldiers stationed there, but the two of them won’t be a challenge. They’ll blow a hole around the entrance gate for an easy exit and enter from there. No need to go all the way to the center and risk getting trapped. This is just a warning and a trial, not a full blown attack. That will come later.
For a brief moment, Azure considers being discreet, then immediately dismisses the idea. Why be subtle? He wants them to know they’re under attack and he wants them to feel how powerless they are to stop him. There’s no reason to hide his intentions.
He approaches the gate with Ocher a half step behind him. The second the two soldiers turn towards them, he attacks, igniting their own guns to send a fiery blast ripping through the gate with enough force that the two soldiers are thrown backwards and into unconsciousness. Out of his way, but not dead.
They step through the gaping hole in the fence to see soldiers already running towards them and hear an alarm blaring in the background. Judging by their disheveled appearance, not a single one was prepared for an attack on their base. Fortunately for them, his goal is to hinder, not kill or they’d all be sacrifice.
Azure uses the remains of the first fire to create a wall of flame, holding back the approaching soldiers long enough for him to select a target. The two story building to his left seems perfect. Soldiers aren’t coming from that direction, so there’s a higher chance it’s empty.
“Ocher, hold them off!”
“What?” His eyes flick to Azure in a panic. “I can’t hold all of them back alone! You want me to kill them all?”
“Don’t worry about that, you have tranquilizer bullets now.”