The journey back to the Rust Sea was long.
Inyocha didn't speak much. He spent most of his time staring at the waves, his brown eyes distant, his hands clenching and unclenching as if searching for shadows that were no longer there.
Kira tried to talk to him. "So... you're not evil anymore?"
Inyocha looked at her. "I don't know what I am anymore."
"That's fair," Kira said. "I don't know what I am either. Most days."
Taro tried to befriend him. "Do you like games? I know a game where you have to guess which hand the rock is in "
"No," Inyocha said.
"Okay. That's fine. We can just sit in silence."
They sat in silence.
Ren tried to understand him. "You saw the Hollow King," Ren said one night, as the ship rocked gently on the waves. "You saw what's coming."
"Yes."
"How much time do we have?"
Inyocha looked at the stars the cold, distant stars that hid horrors beyond imagining. "Not enough. Never enough."
Ren nodded. "Then we'll have to be ready."
"How do you prepare for the end of the world?"
Ren smiled that calm, unreadable smile. "You don't. You just keep living. Keep fighting. Keep loving. And when the end comes, you face it with your head held high and your friends at your back."
Inyocha looked at Lee, who was sleeping on the deck, Onyx Tempest across his lap.
"Friends," Inyocha repeated. "I've never had those before."
"Now you do," Ren said. "Whether you want them or not."
Inyocha didn't answer.
But that night, for the first time in years, he slept without dreaming of the darkness.