Fight Won, Fair and Square

Makoto ran outside of the cave and up the mountain to the arena where he had first seen Zain.
"HEEEY!!! ZAIN!!!" He screamed into the air. "LET'S SETTLE THIS!!!!"
The blonde appeared in front of Makoto. "What do you want?" He said, very audibly annoyed.
"You hurt a lot of people," Makoto said, "and I bet you sleep just fine despite it!"
"I don't sleep," Zain said in a very matter-of-fact way. "I don't need to."
"Oh," Makoto said.

There was an awkward silence.

"Well, either way," Makoto continued, "I'm gonna fight you!"

Zain chuckled, then laughed, then cackled. Then he started attacking in Makoto's direction using his dark Abyss magic.
A few seconds later, after the smoke from those attacks had cleared, Zain saw that he had hit Makoto at least 4 or 5 times, because he had scratches all over and was on the ground. "You seriously don't know when to give up, do you?" He said with a smirk, walking towards Makoto and raising his spear, ready to strike.
But before he could, his arm seemed to be held back by something he couldn't see. "Wh- Huh??" He stammered, trying to move his arm.
Just then, he noticed that Makoto had suddenly, somehow, gotten up, and a blinding light was emitting from his pendant. It was like he was grabbing Zain's arm without touching it, and it felt like he suddenly got the power to throw him backwards.

"You know what?" Makoto said, brushing a cut with his free hand, "you're right, Zain. I don't know when to quit."
Zain kicked Makoto off balance, and held his spear at Makoto's throat. "You are going to lose here," Zain said through his teeth. "You're going to lose just like that old man who taught those two from the Katzenartig Clan!!"
But Makoto got up slowly again, and with his eyes suddenly glowing, said once again...

                                                              "Nah, I'd win."

He kicked Zain from the right, then slapped him from the left, and kicked him in the chest so he fell backwards. But that was all he could do, because he had already been attacked over several times, his stamina was low. Because of that, he fell unconscious after those three attacks.
But a little while later, when he woke up, he saw that he was back in the cave. Ryu, who had been pacing back and forth worriedly, noticed first and ran over to him, which made everyone else notice.
 "Makoto!" Ryu said, hugging Makoto suddenly. "W-Wha- wait a second, what happened?" Makoto stammered, surprised, confused and a bit worried.
"You were out for an hour," Chihiro said, now standing nearby so he could make sure Makoto was OK. "We thought you might actually be really badly hurt."
"He WAS badly hurt," Ryu said, still not letting go. "I sensed Astrian power from that Zain guy; adding to the fact that he's ALSO from the ABYSSー"
"Ryu," Shiro said. "He's fine now, and that's what matters; right?" Ryu grumbled a bit, but begrudgingly moved away from Makoto.

Makoto looked at Shiro after Ryu let go. "Wait, you're OK, too?" He said.
Gepard nodded to Makoto. "Yes," he said, "when you had left for the arena, I figured out that you were  actually the Chosen One, and so I used the power of the Kristall der Wiedergeburt to help him." Chihiro nodded. "I mean," he said, "we came here to fix whatever had happened to Shiro, so I guess we're finished here."

Just then, Zain showed up just outside the cave. He had a look in his eyes that was completely different from before. He looked like he was scared, sad, like he felt inferior, something that definitely was different from before.
Gepard saw him and drew his scythe. "No no, wait!!" Zain shouted, putting up his hands. "I'm not going to fight you anymore, just let me talk!"
"... fine," Gepard said, lowering his scythe a bit (practically a inch). "But make it quick."
"The Chosen One," Zain started, "said that I had hurt people, and that even so, I 'slept just fine'."

"But even though I knew he was right," he continued, "I still fought him. I still pushed justice away, I still stuck with the Abyss, and all because I thought I'd get more power that Master couldn't give me.
I-I," Zain's voice broke, and he started crying suddenly. "Gepard, Katze, I-I know you won't forgive me," he managed to say, "but I need to say that I'm sorry, because if I don't, I-I'll f-forget what I'm feeling right now, andー a-andー ...?"

Before he could continue, Katze, who had already recovered from the previous attack, ran up to Zain and gave him a hug. "Zain," he said, "I missed you."
Zain nodded and returned the hug. "I- you- me too," he said into Katze's shoulder.
Suddenly, Gepard separated the two. "Katze," he said, "move aside."
Makoto tried to stand up and stop Gepard from what he thought he was going to do. "Gepard, wait a secondー ?"

But instead of attacking Zain, Gepard did exactly teh same as Katze: he hugged him.
"Wh-What are you doing?" Zain asked him. "Forgiving you," Gepard replied simply.
"B-But, evenー e-even after everything?" Zain asked as Gepard pulled away. "Yes," Gepard said. "Because the last time you cried like that was when you told Master that your father was from the Abyss. And yet Master still took you in as if you were one of us; as if you were part of our clan."
Zain looked down and wiped his tears. "So," he said, "you're willing to take me back?"
Gepard nodded. "Yes, I am," he said. And, smiling, said...

"Zainel Arious."

Zain laughed a little. "You- you remembered my full name," he said, to which Gepard nodded.
"How could I forget?" He said with a slight smile. "After all, at one point in time, we were closer than family, the three of us."

The whole group chuckled a little, making the tension in the cave disappear as if it had never been there in the first place. First, Zain laughed, then Gepard and Katze followed, and then Shiro, Ryu, Chihiro, and Makoto all laughed as well.
"Well," Gepard said, a rare smile on his face, "I suppose that's the end of that."
Makoto nodded as he stood up slowly. "Yep," he said with a grin, looking at Shiro and the others. "We helped Shiro, and managed to bring one person out of the Abyss along the way."

Chihiro nodded, a big smile on his face. "Mhm!" He said, "and now we go back to the Apex Tower, I guess?" Ryu was about to say yes, but then looked at Makoto, then back at Chihiro.
"Uhm," he started, "Makoto, w-what do you think?" He said awkwardly.
Makoto chuckled a little, then nodded. "Sure," he said. "Besides, I'm still only just getting teh hang of fighting, hehe."
Shiro nodded. "Well then, I guess we're going! It was a good experience, being here."
Gepard and Katze nodded. "Until next time, I guess," Katze said as the group started leaving. "Yep!" Makoto said, waving to the three before running up to the others.

Not long after leaving the cave and going back down the mountain, Shiro went over to Makoto and whispered, "hey, Makoto? Did I say anything... weird  before Gepard used the Crystal on me?"
"Weird?" Makoto repeated. "Uhm, not that I remember... oh wait, you did say something about Obscurus and Albus, but I have no idea what you meant."
Shiro nodded, turned his head to look back at the cave for a moment, then turned back to face Makoto. "Puer," he said, "I think it's best if you ignore that," he said, putting his hand on Makoto's shoulder.
"Why?" Makoto asked, genuinely curious.
"I was just delirious," Shiro replied, "so it wasn't anything important. I just don't want you to stress yourself out over nothing, y'know?" He said with a wink.
Makoto nodded and smiled a bit. "Yeah," he said.

When the group got back to the Tower, they all went about their average daily activities. Ryu, Chihiro and Makoto trained, and Shiro went to do something he said was important.
And at the end of the day, when they went to sleep, Makoto felt as if he could take on any trial that might show up.

Even if the Abyss King were to fight them the next day.