A/N: I'm giving your parents a name so it's easier. (for me...)

➨ Both of you stared in silence. Neither of you knew what to say. Or if you did, you had no idea how to start. Even better, the back of your hands were still together. Just completely frozen in confusion.

That thing was a fusion of all three of your puppets. Acro's colors. Sylvania's dress. Aegis' crown. Bits and pieces of them to create one giant puppet that charged through a stone wall. That part alone made your head spin because you'd never seen or knew it could happen.

What really got you was why it came out of Zora's ash circle. Even if he didn't throw it out, it was still the derivative of his magic. His grimoire.

Carefully he steps through the hole and out into the light. He still hadn't dropped you yet. Possibly forgetting that he was even holding you amid everything. But your leg was killing you, so you sort of prayed he wouldn't put you down just yet.

You looked around for any sign of Vanessa and Finral. You would hope that they could find the exit without going all the way down. Neither of them could be seen, though. Which means you were on your own to get back to the hideout.

He stops near a tree stump in the shade and sets you down on it. Graciously, you sit down, which makes him hunch over slightly. "I can scoot over and you can sit down." It looked like he was considering it for a moment, but he ended up sitting down in the grass instead. It was less stress on his back at least and his arm didn't have to stretch as far.

"I don't know if you possessed me or something." He mumbled. "But if you can create shit like that, no wonder the parliament has it out for you."

"That wasn't just me and you know it." You tell him. "It crawled out of your ash magic. We must've accidentally combined our magic and that happened."

Zora doesn't seem convinced by that answer. "Why would it combine with you?"

"I don't know."

He stares, probably hoping for a better answer. After a few moments of not receiving one, he sucks his teeth and mutters something incoherent under his breath.

You rolled your eyes and shakily stood up, nearly getting dragged to the floor. He doesn't move, making you stay leaned over. "We can talk later but we're wet, dirty, and I'm exhausted. Where's the hideout?"

Zora stayed sitting. "I don't know. Don't even know where the hell we are." He frowns, his sharp teeth flashing.

"Okay. So let's go try and find our way back instead of sulking." You try to pull him up but he's being extremely difficult.

"I'm resting." He says pulling back against you.

"You can rest when we're back." At this rate you're playing tug of war.

"Don't be fucking impatient," he gives another hard tug which sends you flying forward onto the ground. Well, not the ground exactly. Zora was a fantastic cushion to break your fall.

His head hit the ground and he had tried to catch you so you wouldn't fall directly on him and that didn't work. Your head collided with his chest and the hands that were tied together were flat on top of each other.

Since his entire stomach and chest was exposed it was skin to skin contact that sent a sharp chill up your spine. Immediately you pushed upwards onto your legs. His other arm was draped over his eyes.

"That was your fault." You mutter.

He drops his arm and stares up at you still sitting on top of him. "You enjoying the view or something?"

"You wish." It was a team effort to get back up off the ground. Although you both got up and didn't speak about it again. To save dignity.

"None of this area looks familiar to you?" You ask.

He sighs. "Not really."

"I'm good with directions. I would just need a map or some knowledge of which way the hideout would be.

Being on the move so often while growing up was the main reason for that. Your mom was excellent with directions. At one point you thought she could navigate throughout the entire kingdom with her eyes closed. She'd actually probably try it.

She taught you to remember everything that stood out to you specifically. An especially shiny rock, an odd shaped tree, or a marking in the ground. She would make notes on everything and anything just in case she got turned around.

"Honestly, I couldn't even point the hideout out on a map. I think it's somewhere south west-ish of the capital. Not like I have a compass to figure that out."

You thought for a moment. Technically no, you had no compass but your puppets might be able to help with that. You take a breath and your grimoire floats out in front of you. Marionette Roulette. At the very least Sylvania would come out, which would give you enough information. If she did pop up, she could definitely help with your leg too.

The circle fills up and she rises up slowly. Her body is facing directly towards you which means you have all the information you need. "Think you can fix my leg while you're out?" She wordlessly lifts her hands and a black glowing aura emits from her palms.

"How does that help with direction?" Zora asks, watching as she works her magic.

"They're always facing north when they first come out." You explained to him and pointed the way she was originally standing. "North," then your finger shifts to the left. "South West-ish."

Sylvania's hands pressed against the bite left by the spider. She could help you out, but she can't do too much healing on humans before it starts to hurt them instead. Your tolerance is a little higher because she's your spell. But if she tries to bring other people to 100% it'll do more harm than good.

Within a few minutes the bite was mostly scarred over and the pain had diminished greatly. Now, Zora wouldn't have to carry you all the way back. He waited patiently and stood with his back facing you.

"We can go now." You dismissed Sylvania and watched her fade away. "Guess we're just going to walk in this direction until we see something familiar."

He stuck his free hand in his pocket and wordlessly walked right past you, forcing your legs to keep up. Your brows furrowed at his sudden silence. You didn't say anything more spiteful than usual. Actually, you thought you were being nicer this time around.

You followed behind him while racking your brain to figure out what his deal was. Normally his mouth being closed was a good thing—great even. This time it feels more like he's ignoring you purposely because of what happened earlier.

"Pretending I'm not here isn't going to make it better." You mumbled.

Another length of silence. Until his voice comes through. "I'm just thinking about how it's possible for a commoner to do shit like that."

Being a commoner had nothing to do with it. In fact, it wasn't all that crazy considering how Asta and Yuno turned out. Growing up you learned anybody can have power with the right circumstances.

"You know, when I was younger, like before I got my grimoire, I met the first commoner who became a Magic Knight. My parents were good friends with him. Still have massive respect for the guy. I heard he passed on a mission though."

Zora abruptly stopped walking, making you walk directly into his back. You rubbed your forehead and glared at the back of his head in confusion. "A warning would be great."

He looked over his shoulder with an unreadable expression on his face. Maybe a little surprise with the way his eyebrows were raised. "You knew the guy?"

"Yeah...? Had dinner at his house once. His name was..." You trailed off trying to rack your brain for a name. It was just suddenly a blank slate. "No idea actually. I feel like if I saw it written down it'd come back to me."

Zora opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. It almost felt like he had seen a ghost or something equally as terrifying. He turned his body towards you fully. "Any random chance your mom's name is like Irene or something like that?"

You froze for a long moment. It's been a while since you heard anyone else say her name. He said it so out of the blue that it made you think he was messing with you. But there was no way he could be because that type of mind game was beyond his ability.

Zora dragged his hand through his hair with a heavy sigh. "Irene and Kieran. My old man couldn't couldn't shut up about how people like them took a liking to him."

He knew both of your parents?

It took another long moment of thinking to wrap your head around his words. Then suddenly memories came rushing at you like a freight train. "Zara." You finally said. "Holy shit I'm dumb, your names are only one letter apart! You're Zara's son."

You couldn't tell if he was disgusted by this new revelation, or genuinely lost and confused. Reading him was still not an easy task. "I don't know why it took me this long to put the pieces together. I guess it makes sense, you remind me of both of them."

"I didn't know you were close with them."

He shrugged. "After my dad died, they came to visit me a few times. Think they offered to take me in. But I dipped and started living on my own not too long after."

The thought of him being on the move with you sent a weird vibe through your body. Perhaps if he did, he'd act differently than he does now. Wow, maybe he would be a nicer person. Then again, you can't imagine him tagging along with you as a child.

Something dawns on you, and it makes you quicken your steps so you're not lagging too far behind him. Well, as far back as you can go before he's yanking on your arm.

"Do you remember when the elves attacked and you said I fell asleep on the field or something?"

"Why are you bringing this back up?"

"Because it might have something to do with what just happened." You responded. "I was in a different realm. With all three of my puppets and my dad. Not his physical self obviously, but some type of hologram of him. But it seemed like it was really him. Like he was talking to me."

He sighed. "Whatever drugs the elves pumped into you must've made you go a little hysterical. That's not shocking."

"You're not wrong, but he said whatever he was doing before he died was reacting with their magic. So I'm assuming it gave him... a passageway into my head?"

He tilts his head down in your direction and then laughs. "Hardcore drugs. I'll bite though. If that really happened, why don't you just go back inside your head and ask him what the hell happened?"

"Last time I tried to dive back into my head my eyes started bleeding and two of my puppets turned into scrap." You gesture to your eyes which still have faint red stains running from them. "But now... maybe you can help me with that."

"Oh no." He immediately interjected. "Hell the fuck no. I don't want to go through a quarter of that shit. You already tried and look how that worked out for you."

You stopped walking, making him reluctantly come to a pause too. "Are you serious? We could do some crazy shit together. I don't know how we did it but something happened. Just imagine if we figured out how to do it intentionally–"

"No." He yanked his arm, making you start to move again.

He was lucky you didn't fall over again. "You're lamer than you look."

"I'm lame for wanting to keep myself in one piece?"

"Yeah. Lame."

————————

Eventually, you found the hideout by walking in the proper direction. From now on you'll remember just to walk Southwest. The moment you got back you were greeted to a basically empty room. Meaning, Vanessa was nowhere in sight.

Although Captain Yami was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper with a cigarette in his mouth. He glanced up and puffed out a plume of smoke. "Oh, thought everyone was gone for the day. Why are you tied together? You're the last two people I would've thought to be into that."

Zora's eye twitched. "Why would we be into this?"

He turned the page. "Who am I to judge what adults do in their free time?"

You shook your head. "Where's Vanessa? Her and Finral sent us on a mission into a dungeon. She needs to let us out of this thing."

Yami scratched his head. "I dunno. Haven't seen either of them around. Knowing Vanessa she probably dragged Finral somewhere. Or maybe something else came up."

That's great. Something just happened to come up right after she tied you to Zora. It's all starting to feel like a set up right about now. You'd already tried to get it off yourself, but nothing worked. Whatever she did, she had you locked in tight.

"Oh, Y/N, your things finally got here. A blue haired boy with glasses. He was a little upset that you weren't around but he said there's a note for you or something. We got a small room for you now, so I put everything in there."

It made you sad that you missed Klaus' arrival, but it still put a smile on your face that he came all the way here. "Thank you. And... where is the room?"

"Right... you'll just have to find it."

Well, it was better than nothing. You glanced up at Zora who seemed like he had come to terms with being dragged along wherever you go. Even though he didn't look pleased, he kept his mouth shut.

You spent nearly fifteen minutes fighting the constantly shifting building trying to find where the room could've been. Everybody had their name scribbled into a plate on the front, and so far you've stumbled across Gauche's, Charmy's, Magna's, Asta's twice, and Noelle's.

At last you turned the correct corner which had your name on it. You sighed with relief and opened the door. He wasn't wrong about it being small, but it was still a space which you were grateful for. It was dark and dusty but besides the few cobwebs in the corner, it wasn't all that bad.

There was a white suitcase laying on the bed, followed by a shimmering pristine envelope with a Golden Dawn wax seal. It would be a lot of work to try and completely unpack and clean up with one hand, so you settled for just reading what was inside the envelope.

"I feel like I should turn around or something." Zora mumbled, his gaze focused on every other thing besides you and the note.

"Just stand there. Turning around has too much twisting involved." You unfolded the neatly creased letter and read the beautifully printed handwritings.

Y/N,

I'm deeply sorry we took so long to return your belongings to you. Yuno was throwing a fit saying that we shouldn't because you'd be back before you got too comfortable over there. I hoped that would be true; but I don't want you taking chances with doing something to make anything worse. You have hot-headed tendencies. Please take care of yourself, and come back when the time is right and everything is cleared up.

Hopefully our letter makes it to you safe and sound! Klaus has been stressing trying to make sure everything is orderly and makes it back in one piece, so I'm sure it will. I didn't realize not having you here would feel so off. I miss how I could come to you with anything and you'd talk to me to make me feel better. But I know if you saw how upset I was you'd tell me it'll be okay. So I'm telling you that everything will be okay and we'll see you soon! <3

I really don't know why everybody is so damn emotional. It's not like you're dead or something. If you ever want to sneak back in, I can make it happen. As long as I still have your robe, you're forced to come back. I swear I'll kill you if you don't.

Sincerely,

K,M,Y

A slightly bloodied teardrop dropped onto the paper making you blink your eyes before wiping them quickly. You set it back on top of the suitcase and took a deep breath. Without those three, you know you wouldn't have made it as long as you did in the Golden Dawn.

They're expecting you to come back. Meaning they have full belief you can figure out this shit and get out of it. Regardless of what the parliament said, they still think everything is a misunderstanding.

But in a way it's not a misunderstanding. You're responsible for the murder of that knight. Your hand, your attack, your grimoire. Even if you were to try and fight it any other way, it still comes down to the true facts.

"This is fucked." You dryly laugh. "I have the entire royal parliament against me for murder. But I know they just needed a reason after the Midnight Sun raided the capital. Then I gave it to them."

Maybe you should've just taken blame for it. Pretended like you were the mastermind just to make them feel whatever they fought you so goddamn hard for.

"Then maybe you need to go back through the passageway inside your head." Zora suggests, his voice surprisingly low and non-irritable.

Your gaze cuts over to him. "I already told you I don't know how. Even if I did, I can't."

"Duh, of course not. Not by yourself at least."

You pause. Trying to wait for the joke to come in after his sentence. When one doesn't come, you tilt your head in confusion. "What are you suggesting?"

His lip curls and he stares at you as if you're an idiot. "Do you want my help or do you want to keep crying blood?"

This was a rare moment. As much as you want to crack a joke at him, he might revoke his statement and his help. So instead you saved the comment in the back of your head. "Was the bonding mission actually a success?"

"Yeah no, I'm pretty sure this is trauma bonding."

"So? A bond is a bond."