"The Plan"

"The Plan" was a multi-step scheme implemented by Nik and Summer in order to bring Skie and his brother Kay back from the dead.

## The Plan

### Background:

Charlie, since knowing Nik and Summer, appeared as a jaded, angry person with a good heart - however, his personality before the death of his closest friend and Hansir, Skie, was different. Before his best friend died in front of him on a mission, Charlie was charming, carefree, and full of life. Following Skie's death, not only did Charlie close in on himself, so too did Skie's brother, Kay, to the point of suicide. Kay's room-mate and good friend, Nik, never forgot him.

Hundreds of years later, the opportunity presented itself to bring both of them back. Nik, becoming more and more acquainted with the powers he had access to through Kin, realized the potential to retrieve souls from the afterlife through the Daemon realm. However, the rules of retreival were complicated. In order for Nik to make it to the Daemon realm in a way that would allow him access to Kay and Skie's souls, he had to be killed by another in extreme anger.

This left a predicament - perhaps the ony person capable of killing Nik was Charlie. But Charlie, embittered by even the name of Skie, had shot down every attempt at discussing Skie back with anger and hurt. Thus, Nik and Summer began crafting "The Plan."

Nik and Summer decided that Charlie needed to kill Nik in order to bring Charlie back. But with Charlie unwilling to even tolerate the discussion without an angry outburst, and with the need for Nik to die by another in a fit of hatred, Charlie couldn't know about the plan - the emotion had to be genuine. Nik and Summer decided that they would need to target one of the only people left that Charlie felt deep love for - his brother, Carson. They would need Jayson's help too, to make the event look real. But Summer knew that Carson could never cause Charlie enough hurt for the plan to work, and Jayson would never go against his Hansir's wishes - the plan would have to work without Jayson or Carson knowing. They would need outside help.

### Part 1:

It was a hot summer day on an idyllic planet near Galensha, in the outer region of the Olecron Galaxy. Charlie, Carson, Avri, Summer, Nik, Rose, and Alden lounged in the field on a picnic. A day prior, Jayson had already been taken care of - lured into a deep sleep by a Madrigal artifact supplied by Scarlett. The Madrigal had also supplied Nik and Summer with a crystal to allow Avri (as one with no powers) to temporarily take on Jayson's powers, mastery and all. Nik and Summer had completed an extermely difficult mission for Scarlett in exchange for her help, and her silence.

In the picnic, Nik began to play dangerously with his powers, becoming more careless and lighthearted as he went. Nik made spurts of gold fire appear, boasting about how he was gaining more control - Charlie immediately became defensive. Nik began to call on Kin for more power, despite Summer and Charlie's protests, claiming that he was gaining more power than ever before. As his power escalated and escalated, jets of fire, earth, and metal becoming greater and greater, there was a massive explosion of roiling, liquid gold fire, and in the aftermath Charlie found his brother dead, burned by Nik's carelessness.

Jayson's power, controlled by Avri, masked the scene - Carson, unconscious with a few burns, but far from dead, Nik far from transforming into Kin, all appearing to Charlie as his worst nightmare. What happened next was fast, devastating, and brutal, ending with Charlie collapsed, broken in sobs over his brother's body, with Nik's own body destroyed beyond imagination a few metres away. Alden, Summer, and Avri looked on in horror - the plan had worked.

### Part 2:

Carson and Jayson were taken far away and kept in a carbon-fibre ship galaxies away, where they couldn't interfere. It would take 9 months for Nik to come back to life, and for the good of the plan they had to be kept away, a video from Nik and Summer apologizing, acknowledging the hurt, but affirming that they couldn't be let go until everything was over.

Alden, Avri, Rose, and Summer took care of things back home. Avri went with Charlie to watch over him as he drifted through the galaxy, aimless, all humanity gone - ready with a chest of Ice 7 to stop him if he attempted to end himself. Nik was kept in his room on Summer's ship, mind and soul far away in the Daemond realm, fighting through layers of hell and madness and confusion, dragging himself towards the flicker of two souls he recognized, ready to pull them home. Melody had to be kept away - they weren't sure if she would help them or not, but they doubted she could put Charlie through that much pain, even for something good. It was a long nine months, full of pain on all sides, and Summer in particular wondered if they could ever be forgiven, doubting whether or not what they were doing was right in any way.

Rose and Alden began their task of looking for Skie and Kay's bodies - they were kept in a vault on Polaris, deep in the earth of the coldest sector, in a masoleum of silver, gold, and white. For Alden, the last time he had been on Polaris had been before he had been taken by his father - and the memories were too painful to even think about, so he shut them out and focused on the mission.

### Part 3:

Nine months had passed. Nik had dragged Kay and Skie's souls out from the Daemond realm, and Rose and Alden had retrieved their bodies from Polaris. Avri, still with Charlie, was nearly at her end. He was so far gone she wondered if even the return of Skie and Carson would bring him back from his lifelessness. Eventually, Charlie agreed to go with her to one last place to help her with one last thing before she would agree to leave him alone, and unbeknownest to him, it was Summer's ship.

Before Charlie arrived, there were readjustments to be made. Skie and Kay woke up weak, disoriented, in shock. It took time to renew their bodies and heal their minds - but for Kay, the feeling of being held by his brother again, after all this time, was all the healing he needed. For Skie, the trauma had been little - he remembered dying, and the waking up there as if nothing had happened - for Kay, the memories of losing his brother and the heartbreak that followed were still fresh. The reunion of Kay and Nik was heartfelt as well - for Nik, this part of his childhood he thought he would never get back, and for Kay, a bit of his old life, still here, still grinning at him just the same, though the dark circles under his eyes told a story of how difficult it had been to drag the three of them back.

Charlie returned to the ship with Avri, listless, in a dream. Jayson masked Carson, Skie, and Kay's auras to keep Charlie from suspecting a trick and leaving - he had to see them to really believe. Charlie let himself be led down the hallway, and when he opened the door to the main dining room and saw his brother standing there, he at first began to cry, believing it to be a trick done by Jayson, and then began to cry harder when he realized his brother was real. After holding Carson far too tight, far too long, Charlie let him go and was given his second surprise - his Hansir. Most of those present disagree on how long it took for Charlie to say anything - Skie didn't approach, just stood there, tears leaking into his smile, and Nik and Summer explained everything. When Charlie finally did run forwards to pull his Hansir into a hug, he began to cry so hard he appeared to be laughing, or perhaps the reverse - none of those present were sure which.

###