***
{Inside The Projection}
Malik and Cyrus stood there, breathing slow, staring at each other.
The guards around them were all on the ground, knocked out cold.
For a long mont, the hall was quiet, save for the whispers of steam in the distance.
Cyrus humd low and leaned in, inspecting him for the first ti, curious.
It seed that he didn't recognize Malik yet... he might've even forgotten him.
In any case, Malik certainly wasn't helping with the scarf, the lowered hood.
Worse yet, he still hadn't said a word after his vengeful roar.
Deeming him a random assassin was natural and expected.
But sothing about him made Cyrus pause any thoughts of a second attack.
Approaching with soft feet, he squinted his pink rubies.
Then, slowly, he tilted his head.
"Oh..."
He froze.
"Ohhhhhhhh… no."
His voice cracked with giddy disbelief.
"Ohhhh, you shouldn't be standing here."
He stepped closer.
One more look.
His eyes widened.
"Ohhhhhh stars above. No. No. No way. It's you."
He practically danced back a step.
"YOU. You're—you're that Malik kid!"
Malik didn't respond; he just tugged the scarf down.
Face half-shadowed. Mouth set in stone.
But then—
"Ahhh… ohhhh... hohohoho… Oh my."
His voice suddenly ca from behind him.
Malik turned, unfazed, and t his eyes once more.
"You've grown up, haven't you?"
He stood just two steps away, face grinning, hands behind his back like so proud teacher.
"Ohhhhh~ yes, yes, YES!"
Cyrus bead, eyes wide with a feverish gleam.
"You are the one! I see it now, so clearly. I was wrong. So terribly wrong about you."
Malik blinked once, looked at Huda, who still didn't know what was happening, then back at him.
Cyrus didn't even pause.
"Such raw potential. Talent? Ha! No, no. That word ans nothing to you—you brute-force through it. You muscle through genius! You rend through reason! I—ahh, forgive , I'm babbling, aren't I?"
He stepped even closer.
One foot stood between them.
Malik didn't move.
He wanted to move.
He wanted to kill him that very mont.
But…
He couldn't.
He couldn't.
No matter how much he wanted to.
Not now. Maybe not ever.
His body stayed put. Chest rising slow. Arms slack at his sides.
Cyrus smiled wider.
"You're not supposed to be here... I..."
He leaned forward.
"I left you for dead, boy."
Malik finally took a step back.
"Ah, but don't take that as complaining~! You're the first assassin who lived through my first attack. Did I ntion just how surprising that is? It really is, you knooooow. I felt it. I was sure your head was going to pop, but..."
His smile turned maniacal, perhaps nearing Malik's in its insanity.
"In that mont, sothing about you changed. Sothing major. I know it... Tell . What did you do?"
Malik shrugged, giving no answer.
Cyrus stared in silence for a whole second and then clapped.
"Did you brute force past death? Hm... Incredible! In—no—impossible! Not even a rewind spell would've worked—you would've had no ti... Interesting, so interesting!"
He leaned in again, trying to sniff Malik's soul.
Malik didn't bother stopping him.
He couldn't touch this man.
He'd already tried, and he'd died for it.
So instead, he walked past him.
Cyrus didn't stop him.
The man just kept muttering, stamring, and giggling to himself.
Malik stopped before a beautiful girl just above half his height.
Her hands were loose on her sides, and her jaw was slack.
Huda.
The poor girl was frozen, staring at him like he was so sort of alien.
She kept trying and failing to figure out what had just happened. But when Malik looked down at her, the bottom of his face showed...
She blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Three tis.
"…No."
She whispered.
"No way."
He pulled the scarf down, fully this ti, and lifted the hood.
She gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth.
"BIG BROTHER!"
She practically threw herself at him like a bolt from a crossbow.
Arms wrapped around his neck in an instant. Her face buried into his shoulder.
He stumbled slightly from the force of it but caught himself.
Huda didn't care.
She was sobbing, giggling, hitting him in the chest.
"You're alive?! You're alive?"
She shouted, already crying.
"Big brother, what—how are you even—?"
He gently patted her back. Twice.
He didn't hug her back fully.
He didn't know how to.
But she clung to him like she'd been waiting her whole life for this mont.
"I thought you were dead! U-Uncle told you were gone. That he found the aftermath. That it was hopeless!"
She looked up at him, still hugging, eyes wide and full of joy.
"How?"
Malik looked away.
"Luck."
"Luck?!"
He nodded.
She laughed, half-hysterical, like she didn't know whether to scream or to bite his cheeks.
"You're the worst... I cried for months, you know? Months. I—I thought that you were..."
Her forehead slamd into him.
"You could've at least told that you were fine..."
Malik patted the back of her head, not surprised at her naivete.
"…Sorry."
"No, you're not."
Her reply was instant, as was his:
"True."
Cyrus piped up from behind them, upside down sohow, spinning in lazy circles midair:
"This is soooooo adorable~. I'm genuinely moved. I might cry. If I had tear ducts."
Neither of them responded.
Huda finally pulled back, wiping her face, still laughing through her tears.
She looked at Malik, properly now.
"You… you don't look okay."
It seed that even she could see his eyes for what they were.
Dead.
Her uncle wasn't of much help either, making them even worse.
Still, Malik didn't answer; he just stood there acting like the words didn't reach him.
"Are you okay?"
Insistent, she asked again, more gently.
Malik thought about it, then said:
"No."
And didn't elaborate.
She nodded, holding his sleeve.
"It's okay! Now I'm here for you!"
"Ah..."
He nodded his head.
"Okay."
"..."
"..."
That was it.
Silence... but it was warm.
Weirdly warm, considering the freezing wind battering the city.
His colors hadn't returned, of course they hadn't; it would never be that easy again, but perhaps, in ti, Huda's presence might actually make that happen, for only she, in this wide world, had the ability.
Malik felt Huda's fingers wrap tighter around his wrist.
He looked down, and then, quiet like falling snow:
"It's good to see you again."
Their eyes t.
For a long, quiet second, they just… looked at each other.
"I—It's good to see you too!"
The silence resud until she started:
"You—"
But paused to take a deep breath, only to continue:
"What was that?"
Malik blinked.
He glanced sideways—Cyrus was still talking to himself in the corner. Sothing about ntal strength and the stars aligning.
Malik turned back to her.
"Uh… I was mad."
He was deadpan.
"You scread his entire na like you were about to rip the world in half!"
She snapped, eyes wide.
"…Old grudge."
"Old grudge?"
She repeated, and he nodded. Slowly. As if he himself was unsure of what he was saying.
"You're serious."
Another nod.
She blinked hard.
Then—against all odds—she...
"Oh. Alright. I guess that can make sense."
Accepted that.
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