Chapter Text
A pair of blue eyes open and look down in confused shock.
“Holy shit the fire can talk.” Galo wheezes as he stares down at the little ball of fire that manifests in his cupped hands. Gone is the suddenly roiling, boiling feeling of panic and anxiety almost as if it pooled out of him and into his palms. A tiny pair of eyes blink up at him, wavering among the flames.
Is he going insane? Is this what it feels like to go crazy? Galo’s mind starts to spiral with the knowledge that his fire—which has been inside him all this time—can actually talk and may be sentient. That was...so weird. The fire is alive and it’s inside him . Galo’s guts suddenly feel all squirmy and he starts to get light-headed.
Breathe.
The single pulse of a thought—not even a truly articulated thought, more like a feeling that’s as solid as a word. It flashes through his mind and startles Galo enough to make him take in a long breath. He holds it in his lungs before letting out a long puff of steamy air.
Oh yeah, breathing. That’s important.
“Uh...” Galo looks to the flames in his hands, “Hi?”
What, exactly, do you say to the sentient being that’s been living inside you?
Another feeling blazes through Galo’s mind, lighting up his brain with sparks of something like a greeting. Or, at least, that’s what it feels like.
Galo shakes his head, “So...are all Burnish flames alive?”
A pulse of confirmation crackles along the edges of his nerves.
“Woah.” Galo thinks of the urge to burn, the little whispers that echoed in his mind when he went too long without letting his Burnish fire free. It was simultaneously comforting and incredibly unsettling that those urges didn’t belong to him.
“Where did you come from? All of you?”
There’s a pause before what Galo can only describe as a rapid-fire hallucination flashes in his mind’s eye. His sight wavers like the haze coming off hot asphalt, swaying and swimming until all he can see is fire. A bright, blazing ball of flames in distant space, all interconnected and communicating. A web of thoughts, feelings, all bouncing around in this giant lifeform.
Connected yet individual.
It’s too much, too fast, like dumping water into a cup that’s too small. Ideas and concepts slip through Galo’s fingers before he can even think of comprehending them. Just as it starts to give him a headache the feeling fades with a flickering, apologetic warmth.
To top of the weirdness cake, their flames were aliens.
Galo’s head is reeling and he flops back onto the frozen lake’s shore, staring up at the cloudless sky and watching it transition from blue to shades of pink and orange.
“It feels so far away. Do you miss it…? Your home?”
Loneliness and homesickness pop in his chest like fireworks, just brief flashes that leave lingering trails of somber emotions. Galo rubs a hand over his heart and the ache that nestles there, blinking away the wetness that tries to fall from his eyes.
It’s painfully familiar.
Sure, Galo didn’t lose a whole planet, but he knows what it’s like to have his home taken from him. He understands his fire’s longing.
As these thoughts fill Galo’s head it feels like something settles inside him. The blue flames spread from his hand and curled up his arm, slotting into his old scars and sinking into his skin. Galo watches in fascination as his Burnish flames shrink intohs skin and create something more like smouldering coals.
For the first time Galo thinks his scars look beautiful, decorating his arm with whorls and splashes of blue.
An ever-present light to match his burning soul.
Laying in a charred ring of dried grass and stone, Galo and his fire truly connect. Syncing, understanding, resonating together on a soul-deep level.
As they’re processing this new change that Galo sees a brilliant streak of magenta shoot across the sky.
LIO! Both Galo and his flames recognize him, even high in the sky Galo can sense him.
Galo pops up off the ground and tracks the comet-like flames, watching them slowly shrink below the treeline. He needs to talk to Lio, they didn’t leave on exactly good terms. It makes his heart twist and clench thinking that Lio might hate him for what he did.
On the plus side, Lio escaped! But...Galo was the one to put him away in the first place.
“‘M not going to get anywhere just sitting here.” Galo grumbles and stands, dusting off his pants and running off into the forest. Like a trail of breadcrumbs he can feel his flames leading him through the trees.
Lio, Lio, Lio.
Over a hill the mouth of a cave appears, clearly carved out by flames. Galo hesitates at the mouth, shifting from foot to foot.
Go inside.
His fire urges him forward, beating against his ribcage with hot butterfly wings. Incessant and stubborn. It helps bolster Galo’s confidence and he steps into the cave. Following the winding tunnel of melted stone Galo finally sees some light, a Burnish flame roaring bright with figures huddled close.
He stares in shock at all of them, all varying degrees of injured. God, even kids were bandaged up. One of them looks up at him with a confused and slightly wary eye. He takes maybe a half a step forward before there’s a sharp pain in the back of his neck.
The last hazy thought he has before hitting the hard rock ground is this: Yeah, I probably deserved that.
△ ▽ △ △ ▽ △
Meis can sense Gueira fuming next to him in the stolen truck. Gueira had been fuming since Galo captured them, he can practically see the steam rising from his partner as the redhead grips the wheel.
“If you hold the wheel any tighter you’re goin’ to melt it,” Meis drawls as he slides his gaze away from the window.
Gueira growls and takes a deep breath, letting it out through his nose almost like steam from a kettle.
Oh here we go, Meis thinks.
“How the fuck could he!?” Gueira snaps, finally letting out what he had been holding in since they were captured. “I mean—fuck, I know it was in the plan to get captured. But I didn’t expect to see him on the Burning Rescue team! He’s practically joined the enemy! They’re partly the reason why Thyma and everyone are in such a shitty state.”
Little flickering embers rise from Gueira’s hair, the underside faintly glowing in response to his rage.
Meis leans over and tugs a fluffy lock of hair, making his love yelp and shoot him a slightly betrayed look.
“You’re working yourself up. Everyone needs these cars and if they go up in flames they’ll be useless to everyone.” Meis softens his touch in Gueira’s hair, playing with it to help ease Gueira away from his anger.
“Right, sorry.” Gueira mumbles and looks back to the road, but Meis can tell Gueira is still stewing in that thought of Galo’s betrayal.
“Look,” Meis shifts and leans closer to Gueira, “I understand you’re feeling betrayed but...why?”
Gueira looks at him like he’s crazy, “We were friends —”
“Were we—No, Gueira.” He stops his fellow Burnish as he sees his mouth open, “ Really think about it. Were we Galo’s friends? Yeah, Galo took a hit for you but I think...Galo’s just like that. He’ll put his life on the line for anyone if it means helping them out. What did we ever do to be his friends?”
Their encounters had always been antagonistic, Galo trying to curb their flames and the Mad Burnish trying to stop him.
“We kinda bullied him, if you really think about it.”
Gueira looks like he swallowed a lemon and looks away from Meis, not wanting to confront the thought. That’s fine by him, Meis turns his sight back towards the rolling landscape. He wasn’t hurt to see Galo with Burning Rescue…maybe disappointed. But he’s most worried about what it did to Lio. He knew there was something between Galo and Lio, some kind of connection. After their capture, he could tell what had been building was fractured.
Meis just hopes the pair are able to repair that something. The embers of their relationship will hopefully survive this cold snap.
△ ▽ △ △ ▽ △
When Galo wakes up his neck is aching, probably because he’s propped up like a sack of potatoes against a rock wall. Blinking dazed blue eyes, the fuzzy image of Lio Fotia comes into focus. Perched on a rock and looking down his nose at Galo, their positions make Galo feel like he’s some peasant being thrown at the feet of a king. Lio always had that air of royalty about him.
Galo swallows and shifts around, trying to move his hands only to find them tightly bound. The tingling warmth against his skin tells him that it’s a pair of manacles made of Burnish fire.
“I’ve used my own fire to tie your hands back, you’re not getting free until I decide to let you go.”
That cold tone makes it seem like they’re strangers. Galo has a feeling he’ll be treading on thin ice around Lio. Not that he blames the Burnish leader, not after putting him in the Ice Box.
Don’t fuck this up, Galo thinks to himself and tries to gather his thoughts.
“Hi.”
Lio raises a delicate brow at Galo’s greeting. Wow, way to make an impression, Galo mentally berates himself.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here, Thymos.” Lio says in that cold, powerful tone. “Were you planning on detaining us again? Looking for more time in the limelight? I never took you for one to throw your morals away the second you got the attention you desired.”
This hurt worse than getting hit with that special ice bullet, it seemed like forever ago that he was camping out in the desert. But it really wasn’t that long ago was it…?
“No! I’m not planning on bringing anyone anywhere,” Galo insists sincerely, looking at Lio and hoping that the Burnish leader takes his word. “I didn’t come out here to fight or detain anyone. I…just needed to think some stuff out.”
Lio’s eyes don't become less guarded but a little bit of the ice seems to melt.
“I don’t trust you, not yet. Ga—Thymos,” For a second, Lio seems to forget that he’s not supposed to be so familiar with Galo. “You joined the Burning Rescue. You, a Burnish, became a part of the force trying to put your own people away! How could I ever trust you or what you say again?! You betrayed us.”
Even before Lio finishes talking Galo is shaking his head in denial, squirming against the flaming bonds around his wrists. The discomfort he feels not just coming from Lio’s flames but from his words. His scars grow brighter as he struggles, filling his little corner of the cave with soft blue light.
“I didn’t want to put Burnish into jail! That’s not even what Burning Rescue does—we just put out fires and save people! The ones who detain Burnish are the Freeze Force.” All Galo has ever wanted was to help people, no matter who they were. “I couldn’t save people as a Burnish—not really. But…as someone in the Burning Rescue…I could. I just didn’t want anyone to lose their family anymore.”
“What about the Burnish who lost their families!?” Lio snarls, a few embers slipping from his lips. “Do we not deserve to be saved too!?”
“Of course!” Galo roars back, his fire slowly encasing his arm. His tone revealed just how torn he was, “But I’m—I can’t do it all! I want to—fuck, Lio—I want to save everyone so badly.” Galo pants and takes a breath, calming his raging fire. Yelling at each other isn’t going to help, or make Lio see his side.
“I’m sorry, Lio. I never meant to stay with the Burning Rescue, not really. I just stumbled into their place after I was attacked. I was only gonna crash on their couch and sneak away. But then…they became my friends. Then, they were my family.” God, he didn’t mean for his words to become so raw, so true. But Galo always wore his heart on his sleeve, as short as he liked to keep them.
Lio is silent, unmoving as he judges Galo. There’s nothing more he can do, either Lio will allow him back in or he won’t and leave his life forever.
But before Lio can open his mouth and deal out his judgement, another Burnish—bandaged and cloaked—appears at his side.
“Thyma’s getting worse.” The words are raspy and filled with despair.
“Will she hold out until the trucks get here…?” Lio asks, only to get hesitant silence. Lio’s brows pinch together and he turns away from Galo, towards a young woman laid out on the cave floor.
Galo has to strain his neck to get a good look but what he sees makes him swallow. She’s…completely bandaged up, her chest weakly rising and falling. It looks like she’s struggling to survive. What could’ve happened to the young woman to put her in such a dire state? Burnish were far from delicate. Galo tries not to think about what torture could have happened at the Burnish prison.
An idea sparks in his mind.
“Let me help!” Galo says earnestly, squirming against Lio’s flaming cuffs. “I can—I can save her.”
“You can try .” Lio snaps back at him with derisive, icy eyes.
There’s a sneer on his lips but it’ll take a little more than Lio’s chilly animosity to dampen Galo’s spirits. The flames of his soul are stoked and Galo is determined.
“Yeah. I’ll try,” Galo replies, blue eyes hard and glowing with his inner fire. “Because that’s what I do, I try to save people. I can’t…not try.”
Lio seems a bit taken aback and once again that analytical look returns to his eyes. But rather than anything Galo says, it’s the faint wheeze of the young woman’s breath that makes Lio come to a decision. Galo can’t read his eyes but with a flick of his gloved hand, the fires binding Galo’s wrists disappear.
“Save her.”
Now freed from the burning cuffs, Galo jumps to his feet. He doesn’t run, not with the sight of the young woman looking so fragile and hurt. What was she like, Galo wonders, her hobbies, job, did she put milk in her coffee? People look at Burnish and think they’re flaming monsters, without the need to eat, the desire for companionship. Would everyone think the same, seeing someone who could’ve been their mother, sister, daughter, or other family member in such a state?
These thoughts circle in his head, making him think back to what Lio had snarled at him back when they had clashed. The Burning Rescue were good people, they wouldn’t want to see anyone—Burnish or otherwise—in so much pain. Galo’s spent enough time with all of them to know that for certain.
“Her name is Thyma, right?” Galo looks up to the Burnish, hovering nearby sadly. They all believe she’s done for and yet—yet they hold onto hope. Galo sees the way they look to Lio, the leader, the bright flame of hope in the darkness. Galo…had always wanted people to look at him like that.
Lio nods silently, watching him keenly and standing protectively between Galo and the rest of the Burnish. It strikes Galo how truly he cares about his people.
Galo looks back into those dim green eyes. “It’s okay,” Galo says gently, tipping her head back and opening up her airway, “Just breathe with me.” He can fee his flames, building and growing in his chest. As soon as he had the idea his inner fire had reacted, lighting up with delight and growing, building, warming. Not too hot, or her own fire would be suffocated. Galo can feel it tickling at the back of his throat like a thousand butterfly wings, little sparks crackling against his tongue.
Galo fills his lungs, his fire swells.
Then, he presses his lips to Thyma’s and lets his fire flow. Closing his eyes, he tries to imagine a fireplace, just like the one in his childhood home, a single log sitting inside with a weak little glow. Embers desperately cling to the bark, flickering and trying not to fade. Galo lends his breath, encouraging the fire to return. Galo’s father had told him to be gentle with fire, it might look scary but in such a small state it’s incredibly vulnerable. Even too strong of a wind could make it die.
It is incredibly slow going, Galo feeding pulses of his blue fire into the dying Burnish woman. But he refuses to rush this, refuses to blunder something so delicate. Time passes but Galo can’t say if it’s been a few minutes or an entire hour. Eventually, there’s nothing left for him to give and Galo leans back, severing their connection with a soft breath. A few stray flickers of flame escape from her lips and Galo almost wants to usher them back inside, beg for them to stay, catch, bloom back to life.
With incredible slowness, Thyma turns her head and looks up to Galo. Her chapped lips curl into a soft smile and silently form two words. Galo hopes—hopes with his entire heart—that she’s saying “thank you”. The moment hangs, everyone holding their breath. Then, she sighs and closes her eyes. Relaxing not into her final moments of death but into an exhausted slumber. Galo falls back onto his ass as he sees her chest slowly rising and falling, no longer struggling for air.
He…did it. Galo Thymos saved someone.
The rest of the Burnish relax seeing her peacefully asleep, a few muffled sniffles among the quiet murmuring.
Galo tunes them out in favor of looking up to Lio. The Burnish leader looks at him with an inkling of more respect. He won’t completely trust Galo just yet but this? This is a really good start. It’s then that Galo notices Meis and Gueira standing off to the side, watching him as well. Oh, they must’ve come in while he was trying to help Thyma.
“Boss, the trucks are ready.” Meis steps up to Lio’s side. It’s…nice to hear his voice again.
Galo gets up and dusts off his pants, standing off awkwardly to the side and watching the Burnish begin gathering up their meager possessions and carefully place Thyma on a makeshift stretcher. There’s no way she can walk on her own.
It is as he’s taking in the sight of the Burnish that Galo frowns, not seeing a familiar face among them.
“Is the pizza guy with you guys…?”
There’s a brief moment of murmuring and confusion among the Burnish, a decidedly small group of Burnish. This can’t be everyone in the city, can it?
“Who’re you talkin—” Gueira starts but Galo interrupts him.
“A Burnish who worked at the best pizza place in the city! He was…captured a few days ago. Wasn’t he with you all?”
Meis and Guiera’s eyes grow pained and Galo hears the leather of Lio’s gloves creaking as he clenches his hand.
“If he was taken so recently then he wouldn’t put him in the Ice Box.”
Galo blinks, frowning at the Burnish leader. “But…you guys—”
“We were an example.” Lio growls, “We had to be seen by everyone taken away in cuffs and shoved into prison, show the public how strong the Freeze Force was and have ‘justice’ served. But others? Normal Burnish people who were just civilians? The unlucky ones get shipped off to Foresight Pharmaceuticals for experimentation.”
Galo’s eyes widen in horror and he slowly starts shaking his head, it only enrages Lio further.
“You’ve heard about them, Thymos! Every Burnish worth their spark has heard one or two. They’re true, even a dolt like yourself should know that.”
“But…why!?” Galo shoots right back, “Why would Kray even want Burnish to experiment on? He makes medicines for norm—for non-Burnish.”
“It doesn’t matter why! It just matters that he’s taking our people and using them as nothing more than lab rats. As long as it furthers his research, it doesn’t matter who he crushes beneath his heel.”
Lio looks away, taking a long, deep breath to calm his nerves after that outburst. Turning away from Galo, he starts to help direct his people in preparation for leaving.
Meanwhile, Galo’s head feels like a jar of angry bees. Thoughts buzz and collide with one another, agitated question swarming without any answer. He doesn’t know what to do—he has no information. Then, it comes to him in a flash, like a literal lightbulb scaring away all those swirling questions.
If he doesn’t know, then he has to get answers himself.
“I’m going to figure it out.”
Lio pauses, sharing a brief glance with Meis and Gueira before murmuring more directions and turning to fully face Galo.
“You’re going to figure out…what?” Lio raises a brow.
“I’m going to find out what happened to pizza guy. I’m going to figure out what Kray is doing with all the missing Burnish. And! I’m going to help them!” Galo gets worked up again, his conviction shining through his scars with bright blue embers. As his bright blue fire burns, it contrasts the hues of magenta and green from Lio’s flames in the cave. Contrasting but…complimentary. They’re different and yet Galo feels like they’re too similar to be enemies. He stares deeply into Lio’s eyes, trying to make a connection, desperately hoping that Lio will feel his conviction and the truth behind it.
Suddenly, Galo is struck with a thought: the blue glow looks beautiful reflected in Lio’s eyes.
The silence between the pair is heavy but not oppressive. Galo watches Lio take in his determination, his honesty, and briefly glance at the fire glowing along his arm. Something changes in Lio’s lilac eyes and the Burnish leader nods.
“Just don’t get caught, Thymos.” He pauses and lets out a soft sigh. “I have a feeling that Thyma will want to thank you when she feels better. I’d hate to disappoint her by telling her that you’re locked up in a cell.” Does Galo detect the tiniest flicker of fondness in Lio’s voice?
“We’re going to the base of Mt. Fennel, there are some abandoned structures there. Nobody will be able to detect us there, the volcano’s too hot. If you do rescue the Burnish…bring them there.”
Galo’s soul swells at the faith Lio shows in him, trusting him with the location of their next safe haven.
“You got it, Lio!” Galo puffs up his chest, he likes having a challenge to tackle. A clear goal in his mind that he can throw himself into with mind and body. Just before Lio snorts and turns his head away, Galo catches the briefest of smiles.
“You’re an idiot for trying to get into Foresight Pharmaceuticals…but a brave idiot.”
With that, the leader of the Mad Burnish turns and makes his way through the cave tunnels, taking his flames with him. Leaving Galo alone and shrouded in a soft blue light until that too dims and fades away into nothing.
Left alone in the darkness of the cave Galo starts to truly comprehend the weight of the task he’s assigned to himself. Was it truly to save his fellow Burnish from unknowable tortures? Or did he want to earn Lio’s respect, and perhaps friendship? Was it both? Galo shakes his head and turns towards the cave’s entrance. What he was going to do was big—no, huge. If he wanted to break into a place so well-known…he was going to need some help.