Caylie finally reached the center of the conflict. Seeing Theus' bruised face and his clasped hands, she rushed to ensure he was stabilized.
"Theus, who hurt you like this? Are you alright?"
Both her and Ronan's vision had been obscured by the crowd, blocking their watchful eyes from looking over Theus. Her eyes drifted to where Theus had been paying extra attention to, and saw the majority of passengers clawing at the floor, an insane look in their eyes.
"This has to stop, Caylie. They'll dig apart the whole ship and we'll all get sucked into space."
Theus turned around to look at Caylie, a weary expression covering his face. It was obvious he was hiding something more, but she chose to not question any further, choosing to focus on his wounds instead.
"Could you create a bandage for yourself, Theus? You look horrible-"
Theus cut her off abruptly, raising his voice in frustration, he snapped at her.
"I don't care about that right now! It's just… these people need to stop whatever the hell it is that they're doing!"
He stomped away towards the direction of Isaiah, leaving Caylie with a somber face hidden under the veil, one filled with disappointment in herself.
*****
Theus took a few deep breaths before reaching Isaiah, attempting to maintain his composure and address him properly, in such a way that another fight wouldn't break out. A lot had happened that was still currently racking his brain, especially considering the tentacle that erupted from his palm. He glanced quickly at the palm of his right hand, which was…
'Wait a sec, the hell?!'
Scratching away at the surface, he saw a violet clot building up around the middle of his palm. Eventually, due to his rough scratching, the clot had receded back into his hand, leaving more blood spilling out of the hole and a searing pain coursing through his brain, his head spinning.
'Dammit all! Why couldn't this Desire be more explanatory?!'
The tentacle seemed to be connected to his Desire in some way. When Theus solely focused on his need for safety and protection from harm, it lashed out at the threat attacking him, that being Isaiah. He wanted to experiment further with all these newfound capabilities, yet never once got the time, all the conflict within the ship was making him all the more irritable.
'I guess wishing for things such as protection gets fulfilled through whatever that tentacle is, since it's not something tangible…'
Shaking his head aggressively, he pushed the thoughts of his Desire to the back of his mind once again, now wasn't the time to be distracted. It was only making his head hurt more.
Putting his right hand in his pocket, he reached Isaiah and kneeled over the buckled boy, reaching his left hand out to offer help with getting up.
"I'm Theus. Sorry about before, for getting in your way and everything."
Theus looked away furtively, not knowing how to apologize correctly due to his background. He felt a tug from Isaiah, who pulled himself back up using Theus' hand. Isaiah still held one hand close to his chest, giving Theus a scoff as he brushed himself off with the other.
"It's whatever. I was trying to prove a point to that entitled Irene that not everything can be fixed with kindness. It's honestly annoying how she is-"
Isaiah threw a nasty look at Theus, who was clearly trying to hold back laughter from Isaiah's hypocrisy regarding entitlement. Theus cleared his throat, and winced from the still continuous pain running through his face. It was bruised by now.
"Uh, anyways. Irene is her name, huh? You two know each other or?"
Isaiah's eyes burned with fervor at Theus' words. Looking at the ground, he let out a deep exhale and put both of his hands in his own pockets.
"Yeah, we were classmates back on Mars. She tried to calm everyone down during the evacuation crisis but failed, and…"
Isaiah zoned out, his eyes growing wide with his mouth remaining fixed open slightly. It wasn't until Theus threw his left hand on Isaiah's shoulder that he had snapped out of it.
"Hey, if you don't wanna talk about it, that's fine with me."
Theus had a lot more questions of his own, but didn't want to press Isaiah any further. He'd rather not risk the threat of getting beat senseless again, plus, one of his questions had been answered.
'A crisis on Mars, guess my parents aren't there then.'
Remembering what he was here to ask, Theus quickly shot out his question before Isaiah had a second to respond.
"Isaiah could you uh, do me a favor?"
Feeling his ego lifted from being asked to do something, Isaiah straightened his posture and took his hands out of his pockets, instead crossing his arms now while smirking.
"Sure, what is it, humble follower?"
Theus bit his nails while thinking of the right words to say, then looked back at Isaiah, satisfied with his thought.
"Could you tell everyone to stop trying to rip the ship apart?"
Isaiah thought for a moment, then looked at Theus disgustedly, looking down on him.
"Are you crazy? After what that tentacle did to me, it deserves to be ripped apart. I'm sure you wanted the same towards me, as if you ever could though. You'd be lucky to even-"
Tuning Isaiah out, Theus was lost in thought. He stuttered and closed his mouth, not being able to think of an alternative.
Until Ronan tackled Theus onto the ground from behind, with Caylie watching from the side silently.
"Damn fool! Got into a fight and lost, huh?!"
Turning his body around, he flipped Theus on his back and caught a glimpse of his battered face, his mouth agape with worry.
"Shit, did I worsen it?! Caylie, come help the boy!"
Pushing Ronan off of him, Theus staggered back up from his fall and reassured Ronan.
"No, no. It wasn't you, it was Isaiah over there. Everything's fine now, but he won't stop these people from tearing the ship apart."
Theus glanced over his shoulder at Isaiah, who had a mischievous grin on his face from Theus' previous fall. With his tongue held, Theus stood there staring until Caylie walked up to Isaiah, addressing him in her typical respectful demeanor.
"Isaiah, you do know if these people destroy this ship, you will be sucked away into space too, right? What's the sense in revenge if you don't exist anymore?"
Fueling Isaiah's evidently large ego and self-importance, he thought about the proposition once again, his words quickly changing due to the realization that his life is on the line as well.
"Hmm, I suppose I'll convince the people."
Lumbering over to the center of the room, his arms drooping at his sides while slouching, Isaiah walked very slowly towards the middle, swaying back and forth as a form of entertainment to himself. When he reached the middle, he threw his hands up in the air aggressively, hoping to get the people's attention by both projecting his voice and body.
"Everyone! If we continue to peel apart at the ship in this frenzy, we'll all get sucked into space! You all wouldn't want to lose your lives now, would you?!"
The blonde girl who was the same age as Isaiah, Irene, stood alongside him, taking his side on the matter as well. Isaiah gave a look of utter distaste as he saw her stand by him.
Stepping away, he continued on with his worried act towards the people. Irene continued with hers, sounding like a full-fledged politician in contrast to her previous failure of a rally.
"I agree with Isaiah. Our two groups must unite as one if we want any semblance of stability on this ship, getting along with one another is vital in these times!"
Irene threw a gentle smile towards Isaiah, who grimaced at the sight of her face.
Theus was ignoring the entire speech and paid extra attention to their facial expressions, leaving him ever more suspicious as to what truly happened between them.
*****
Isaiah and Irene's teamwork with one another resulted in the originally uncooperative crowd complying with their wishes, the rage dying down and, with the people's realization of their predicament, they converse with each other, deeming it necessary to their survival. It finally gave Theus enough time to reconvene with both his thoughts and his acquaintances.
Isaiah and Irene walked back to the group side by side, but ignoring each other the entire walk back.
Whatever past grudges they had with one another would have to stay on hold for now.
Ronan was the first to move, forcing Isaiah into a firm handshake full of respect and pride.
Caylie pulled Irene away to talk with her, looking back at Theus with an unreadable expression due to her veil.
And Theus, while alone, saw a boy with hazel hair and blue eyes as pristine as the ocean appear next to him from nowhere, whispering into his ear while taking Theus' right hand from his pocket.
"Uhm, excuse me, but what was that tentacle from your hand, sir?"