Chapter Text
Charred trees under the moonlight filtering through the clouds resembled skeletons; the plateau on the outskirts of the palace grounds was burnt to the ground. The blast wave and furious outbursts of Hatsu had completely wiped out the grove, leaving nothing but cracked stone. A cloud of thick, suffocating dust made it hard to breathe. The unnatural, frightening silence was broken only by ragged, intermittent breathing and the measured crackle of crumbling rubble.
Neferpitou was on his knees, his left ear torn, wine-colored blood trickling down his silvery hair, his tail hanging lifelessly, and his clothes reduced to scorched rags. The Royal Guard looked like a cornered beast. His chitinous knees trembled from overexertion, his paws were scratched to the bone, and his fingers dug convulsively into the stones.
A couple of steps away from the Chimera Ant towered Gon. Deep cuts covered his chest and face, his knuckles were bruised and bloody, the rags of a torn tank top hung off him, and bloody toes peeked out of his ripped shoes. Around Gon, an ominous aura swirled and pulsed in a dense cocoon, pressing down on Pitou's shoulders and forcing him to the ground. His gaze, blank and frozen, looked right through Pitou.
Gon bore no resemblance to the boy from Whale Island he had been a couple of years ago. He looked neither like a human nor a monster; he was the personification of inevitable death.
Pitou curled into a ball, feeling like prey for the very first time; the Chimera instincts, usually sharp and unerring, were now struck dumb by terror. Pain throbbed in his temples. Ants knew no doubt; ants knew only orders; ants knew rationality. But this creature before him shattered the entire logic of the colony, shattered his whole worldview. Humans were a resource, fragile livestock. But the power radiating from this creature – no, from Gon – was ancient, destructive, and… infinitely desolate. Pouf would have understood, but Pouf was not here.
Pitou looked into those wild brown eyes and, for the first time in his short life, felt not just fear for the King, but also a strange, sticky human loneliness. It made his blood run cold, an incomprehensible ache tearing at his chest, while pain rose from the depths of his soul and twisted his very core. This boy was suffering just as deeply as Pitou himself would suffer if he were to lose the King. And this realization of another’s grief, mingled with mortal horror, was slowly burning away the primordial programming in the Chimera's mind, forcing his heart to beat in a new, terrifying rhythm.
“Kaito is dead,” Neferpitou’s voice sounded quiet but distinct in the dead silence of the rocky plateau. He looked up at the boy, his feline eyes narrowing to barely perceptible slits. “It is true. I needed his body, nya. For training, to understand my capabilities. Your friend was unlucky. Unlucky to cross paths with me. Nya.”
For a second, the air around Gon froze. In the next instant, the space grew white-hot from an outburst of Nen. The boy’s body began to change rapidly; his bones lengthened with a horrific crack, his muscles swelled with destructive power, and his pitch-black hair whipped violently upward. A ruthless executioner stood before Pitou.
“You lying piece of trash!” Gon’s voice sounded low, hollow, and so terrifying that it sent a chill straight to Pitou’s limbs. Gon loomed over the Chimera, his face drowning in thick shadow. “That is why I will kill you. Right here. And after that, I'll have that Komugi killed! And your King will hang himself! There won't even be a need to think about how to kill him! None of you damn ants will survive! Not a single creature!”
Pitou pressed his torn ear against his head. All his pride as a Royal Guard turned to dust in the face of this insane wrath. Pitou was frightened. Truly, to the point of trembling in his chitinous knees. In the eyes of the monster who had once decapitated Kaito without a single emotion, tears of helplessness and primordial fear welled up.
Gon raised his fist, enveloped in blinding gold.
“First comes rock…!”
One blow – and there would be nothing left of Pitou but a smear. A second before the golden hammer of Rock could fall, he froze. Gon looked down at the weeping feline. In those wild, terror-filled eyes, he suddenly saw himself with stark clarity. His own blind devotion, his own fear of losing the one who was dearer than life itself. The Chimera was protecting the King in the exact same way he himself had tried to protect Kaito.
And at that moment of mental deadlock, in his head buzzing with rage, a familiar, calm voice suddenly echoed. The voice he had so desperately wanted to hear again.
“Cool down, Gon. Look at him,” Kaito said softly, with his familiar rasp, making sobs instantly choke Gon’s throat. “He is just a terrified beast. Wild, cruel. But merely loyal to his species and his King. There is no personal malice in him. Is it worth becoming a monster for his sake?”
“Aaaaaghhhrrr!” Gon’s cry ripped across the scorched earth. He was being torn to pieces, his mind thrashing in frenzy, his insides burning with unshed tears and the craving for revenge. Gon cursed and screamed, choking on his own fury. “I hate him! I hate this creature!” But the hand raised over the defenseless, defeated enemy simply refused to obey. “I can't!”
The accumulated, frantic energy demanded a release, tearing Gon apart from the inside. With a wild cry full of despair and pain, Gon spun around and slammed his fist down into the ground beneath his feet with all his might.
“Ka-aaa-aito-oooo!”
A blinding flash swallowed the plateau. The earth shuddered, splitting meters deep from the colossal explosion…
The ground beneath Killua’s feet shook with such violence that he lost his footing and went tumbling down the rocky slope, scraping his knees and palms raw. A couple of kilometers away, a colossal pillar of blinding golden flame skyrocketed into the air, carrying chunks of earth and massive boulders upward. The shockwave slammed into his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs and bringing with it a suffocating, scorched smell.
“Gon!!!” Killua’s ragged scream was completely drowned out by the roar of falling rocks.
Killua leaped to his feet, ignoring the blood. Activating his Godspeed and pushing past his limits, he turned into a bolt of lightning, flying through the smoke and sparks. A single, panicky thought kept pounding in his head: just let him make it in time! “Please, just let that idiot be alive,” slipped from his lips.
When Killua bounded onto the edge of the fresh, smoking crater, the electrical discharges crackling around his body died out, giving way to absolute numbness.
Thick, gray ash drifted through the air, slowly settling onto the mangled, gutted earth.
In the middle of the ashes, arms splayed wide, lay Gon. His body had returned to its normal form, but it looked horrific. His skin was blistered, covered in horrific burns, his clothes completely incinerated, and his breathing was barely perceptible. Gon was not alone.
Hovering over him, breathing heavily and barely maintaining his balance on his buckling chitinous knees, sat Neferpitou. The left side of his body had suffered no less from the shockwave – his clothes were charred, and blood trickled down his scratched hands. Summoning the last of his strength and overriding the pain, the Chimera maintained the shimmering Doctor Blythe over the boy. Glowing threads of aura frantically, millimeter by millimeter, stitched Gon’s horrific wounds together.
As Killua took a step, a piece of charcoal crunched beneath his feet. Pitou flinched. He slowly turned toward him a face stained with soot, covered in bruises, and completely drenched in tears. In his once wild, calculating eyes, there was no longer any bloodlust – only a haunting, hard-won human plea.
“Do not stop me, friend of Gon… nya,” Pitou whispered softly, imploringly, as a new tear traced a fresh path down his dirty cheek. “Gon spared me. I must save Gon. Your Kaito will not return, but this boy cannot die.”
Killua froze, unable to take a single step, while the ash continued to fall silently upon Neferpitou’s wounded shoulders.