Irretrievable

“What the hell happened!?”

Ultra didn’t give Caesar and Umbra a second to recover from their return, his mind only focused on the missing fourth member.

The two of them stood between the safe walls of the Sanctum, far away from the demons at the Crane House. The place where Lucius still resided.

“I-I-I don’t know, the Curator said something about poison, and then…”

Umbra’s words were cut short. She and Caesar both had also been exposed to the toxins for a long duration, and her body began going limp.

“I got you, I got you” Ultra said, quickly stopping his sister’s fall and placing her face up on the long steel table.

Looking over towards Caesar, he saw the same sight. Caesar’s face was flushed, pale as the moon, and his eyes were lazing around the room like he didn’t recognize where he was.

Without wasting another second, Ultra grabbed the boy and placed him alongside Umbra.

Stupid! You’re interrogating them while they’re dying in front of you! Ultra thought. Okay, relax, relax. This is a simple procedure, I just need to cleanse the toxins from their blood.

Standing over the table, he placed a hand on each of their shoulders, his own body beginning to glow a vibrant teal.

The essence of his resonance fluttered like smoke around him, and he directed it into two separate streams that flowed into their nostrils and travelled throughout their nerves.

They’ll be okay. Just keep it together. Focus on the now.

Ultra was already exhausted from maintaining Echo Talk for the four of them throughout the night, and this task was using every last fibre of his being. But he needed to hold it together, there was no other choice.

He fought through the pain, fought against the fire that burned in the depths of his limbs like he was covered in a sputtering flame.

The teal essence continued to flow, and the colour began returning to their unconscious faces.

Slowly, their fingers regained their strength, twitching in small movements, then up through their forearms and into their chests.

Ultra’s resonance had cleansed the toxins from their body, his strain had not been for nothing. But unable to hold it any longer, he fell to the ground, needing a serious rest before he would be able to use his abilities again.

Umbra and Caesar were fully absolved of the poison, albeit still a bit groggy. They both sat up simultaneously, rubbing their eyes like it was the first time they’d seen the Sanctum.

“Ultra!” Umbra exclaimed, noticing her brother nearly passed out on the floor. “Caesar, help me get him up!”

The two of them grabbed Ultra and lifted him into a chair. He was still conscious, still functioning, but needed time to recover.

“I’m…okay…just give me…a second…” Ultra weakly said, his resonance already beginning to refuel his tired being.

As Umbra tended to her brother, Caesar started pacing back and forth furiously.

“How?! How did they know? All the jobs I’ve done, all the things I’ve stolen from right under that bastard’s nose and this is what he gets us on!”

“Calm down…Caesar, this wont help,” Ultra replied, his voice creaking with a strained tone.

“We followed everything to a tee. Ultra, it was all done, we were on our way out. We secured the damn Gnomon! But Lucius…they really got him,” Umbra added, feeling just as furious as Caesar was.

“Both of you…need to calm down, you still aren’t at 100 percent…” Ultra rebutted, feeling some strength slowly return to his finger and wrists. “Dwelling on our mistakes will not bring Lucius back.”

Caesar stopped his pacing and turned to face both twins.

“Can’t we talk to Lucius through Echo talk? Ultra, I know you need to recover, but Umbra maybe you-”

“Where they’ve most certainly taken him…I don’t think our abilities would be able to reach. The chances of the message getting through are near impossible…and he is certainly not in the right state of mind to receive them. It would be better if we all…recovered first,” Ultra interrupted. “Just give me one moment…I need a moment to think.”

Umbra and Caesar granted him his wish, and fighting against their jittering bodies, they both sat in complete silence.

Caesar rested his head on the table, not realizing what a physical toll the whole night had taken on him. Umbra sat back in her chair and stared up at the soaring ceiling, imagining that they were all reunited under a warm night sky, that it was all just a bad dream.

After some time, Ultra broke the silence first.

“I want to express that this is no one’s fault. We…I had no idea about the poison. Petrarch never mentioned anything about a respirator. I’ve never heard of any precautions like that being taken before.”

Ultra circled the table in slow steps, getting the blood flowing through his body.

“So someone must have tipped them off then, they had to have known we were coming,” Caesar said. “But how, no one knew about the plan but us?”

Ultra stopped his pacing, and peered at the screens in front of him that had projected the events of the night.

“I have some estimations, but, I suppose, it doesn’t matter right now. Caesar, you said the retrieval was a success. Do you still have the Gnomon with you?”

“Yeah, I do,” he replied, reaching into his pocket dimension and placing the dull sundial flat on the table.

“Wait, I see what you’re getting at! We can use the Gnomon to go back to the moments before the auction, fix our mistakes!” Umbra exclaimed, jumping up from her chair. “How do we use it, it can’t be that hard right? Just like our bracelets, all it needs is a little bolt of resonance!”

She grabbed the dial in her hands, and even with her lack of energy left, she used all she could conjure to activate the Gnomon. The bleak surface was covered with a bright orange glow, flaming up like the burning sun.

But nothing happened.

“This…isn’t…working…” she said through gritted teeth, ending her output and dropping the item back onto the table. “Ultra, why isn't it working? Am I too tired? You or Caesar give it a try.”

Ultra didn’t respond immediately, and instead went over to the Gnomon and held it up in the palm of his hand, feeling the individual grooves and noticing the weathering that had built up on a relic as old as time.

“I don’t think that’s the issue, your output should have been more than enough. I believe the results would be the same if Caesar or I tried, but I need to run some tests to be certain.”

He brought the Gnomon over to an area behind the holo screens, by a round cylinder surrounded by clear glass. Inside the cylinder, under a frame of dark alloy threaded with glowing crystal veins, he placed the shard of metal onto the testing platform. Above it, a suspended rainbow crystal hummed softly, releasing thin sheets of light that cascaded down to the object underneath.

“The R-Scanner can show us the nature of the Gnomon’s resonance, it can imitate the activation that could only come from the required users. And if my suspicions are correct…”

On cue, the scan completed its function and retracted the light, allowing the full visual of the Gnomon’s jade green glow to cut through the clear glass.

“Yes, it seems to be true. None of us wield this colour resonance, in fact, I don’t know anyone who has essence this shade at all. I’d heard rumours that some of the most divine items in the world could only be activated by chosen users, those who matched the energy type. It appears one of those items is what we have here,” Ultra said, feeling discouraged by the reality.

Umbra had sulked back to her seat, but Caesar remained in front of the glowing dial.

“That colour, I’ve seen it somewhere…” he said, searching for the exact memory that had been piqued.

“That’s right! Jade green is Lucius’s colour. He showed me on the roof of Kizumo before you guys arrived. I was teasing him about his lack of power, but his small output was that exact shade!”

The twins looked at each other, realizing they had never actually seen Lucius’s essence at all.

“Are you sure? Jade green…yes, yes your right…the Phantom Vault turned that colour as well,” Ultra muttered, deep in thought. “Unbelievable, how didn’t I notice?”

“But that doesn’t help us at all! He’s still stuck with those monsters! If we can’t use this, we can’t help him, let alone bring Lain and Surazal back,” Umbra cut in.

Her fury was overflowing, an erupting volcano with apricot tinted lava. She was on the verge of smashing the Gnomon into tiny fragments, her hatred for the Amber King and all his doings building up more and more.

Ultra grabbed his sister by the shoulder’s, their contrasting eyes locking into place. He didn’t use any resonance to restrain her or to calm her, he just looked at her with understanding eyes.

“We won’t solve this problem right now, Umbra, I need time to think. But I promise you, Lucius will be brought home, and the ones responsible will be held accountable. This is not over.”

Ultra broke eye contact and peered over to Caesar, speaking to him in the same calming tone.

“Please, bring my sister to her chamber, both of you need to rest. We will resume this conversation later.”

Caesar just nodded, not having the energy to be angry anymore. Putting his arm around Umbra’s waist, they both slowly ambled away to seek some temporary relief.

Ultra gave a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose like it could prevent the pounding in his head from continuing.

This shouldn’t work, but I have to try if there’s some chance that he'll receive this. I’ll keep the passage between our Echo Talk open at all times for him to respond. The exhaustion from it will just be my burden to bear.

Taking a seat in the chair at the end of the table, he conjured up all the essence he had left and used it for one more message.

Lucius, if you can hear me, stay strong. We will see you very soon. Do not give up your fight.