The Underground City

Télos slipped into the nearest room and closed the door softly behind him. There was a click as he locked it. Then the two listened as his footsteps grew fainter and fainter, a clear sign that he was walking as far away from the door as he could. They tried to ignore the quiet sobs - quiet only because of the distance between Télos and the door - coming from within the room. He would be huddled in some corner, legs pulled in tight by his arms as he rested his head on his knees.

But they couldn't focus on how useless they were to help him right now. Bo had asked a question, and they were the only ones left who could answer it. Of course, that wouldn't be an easy task. Bringing up the past was something everyone tried to avoid.

"You didn't," Lex tried to assure him, though the words felt hollow as they came out. The conversation had been the tipping point, but how could Bo and Casey have possibly known?

"The b****** gets like that sometimes," Aleks added, tapping their left foot as the sobs grew slightly louder for just a moment. Then they returned to their earlier volume, and Aleks stopped tapping their foot as frequently.

"Was he... a victim of experimentation as well?" Bo asked hesitantly.

The sobbing grew louder from inside the room, a clear indicator that Télos had heard at least that comment. He probably could hear everything - the door hadn't looked that thick, and he had always had exceptional hearing. Lex and Aleks shifted uncomfortably, both knowing they couldn't escape telling the truth for much longer.

"No," Lex quietly said. Bo couldn't have been more wrong. Télos hadn't been a victim of any heinous experiments.

He had been the one conducting them.

"W- will he be okay?" Casey glanced worriedly at the door the god had gone into.

"He should be," Aleks simply said, and promptly sat down on the ground near the door. He pulled out a small cloth from their coat and began to clean the blade of their sword.

Lex remained silent the entire time, quickly growing just as concerned for Aleks as he was for Télos. Things were always difficult when something like this happened. First Télos would have shut down, and then Aleks would follow suit moments or minutes later - it depended on what the cause of the reaction was. Something like this had never happened to him, but he knew how Aleks' mind worked. It had wandered, and now he was consumed by the thoughts of what had once been.

"It'll just take some time," Lex added, letting Aleks keep their gaze on the blade resting on their lap.

"Alright.." Casey shifted from foot to foot, growing more and more uncomfortable with each rising sob and Lexal, who seemed to be agitated as well. He fiddled with his necklace awkwardly.

Bo looked at the door with the same concern, trying to figure out what they could've said or talked about that triggered that reaction from Télos. It could've possibly been a small thing that reminded Télos of something mostly unrelated. But... that was unlikely, and if Télos wasn't similar to Casey and Bo in that he was a victim, Bo began to wonder if... Télos might've been a scientist who hurt people himself.

It wasn't something he wanted to ask, but if Télos felt guilty about it - if Télos perhaps, lived as long or longer than he himself had, and therefore had a long life and past - because of whatever positive change he'd come to since then, it would make sense. Why he would weep and mourn so intensely.

But Bo was only assuming things. He couldn't be sure.

"How... old is Télos?" Bo asked quietly.

They were quiet for a moment.

"We're not sure," Lex finally said. "No one is. Oracle and Hero - they're the other gods - might have been able to tell, but they're old too. So old that they've forgotten how long it's been since the Great War, and that would have been the only way of keeping track of their ages."

They fell back into silence, Aleks carefully cleaning their blade. Lex was the one who spoke again. His voice was hesitant, and he kept their gaze on the blade so Aleks could try his best to ignore the memories that were undoubtedly running through his mind. "I'd guess that Télos is thousands of years old, but even that's probably underestimating his real age."

"Thousands of years of emotional baggage..." Casey mumbled to himself, still glancing at the door. He hadn't even realized that he'd voiced his thoughts aloud.

If only Casey knew how true that statement was, though Lex doubted that he had fully grasped what the truth was. It was something that only they could understand, and it was hard for any outsider to even try. Not when they knew what had happened...

"And do ya'll like..." Bo started to ask, hesitantly, and quietly. His voice fell to a whisper. "Do you not comfort him or anything? I mean, he's your friend or something right? Shouldn't somebody go in there and be with him? Nobody should have to cry alone."

Lex made them look up from the sword, even though Aleks still wanted to focus on it instead of the people around them - and, more importantly, the sobs coming from their god. "Even if Télos hadn't locked the door, it wouldn't be a good idea for us to go in there. He starts crying even harder if he sees us." Us being Aleks more than anything else, but he didn't need to make that distinction.

"At least we're not Hero," Aleks grumbled, still wiping down their sword even without their gaze being on it. "He'd bawl his eyes out if Hero tried going in there."

He'd cry harder no matter who he saw, but Aleks was right - if his best friend was in there, he would have been a sobbing mess. "It's hard to guess what will upset him more," Lex said. He let Aleks look back down at the sword as he continued wiping it down. "It's better to let him cry it out and then come back then to go in there."

"And don't ask him about, either," Aleks warned. "Or you'll probably see a reaction like that. He's great at bottling things up, but if he bottles them up for too much, he becomes a sobbing mess."

Bo looked at the door, then back down at Aleks/Lex. "What is it he's been keeping bottled up all this time?"

Aleks stopped cleaning the sword.

As he returned it to its rightful place, Lex took a deep breath. This was a difficult topic to talk about it, but they couldn't continue to ignore it - not when Bo had directly asked them about it. "There was a great war between the gods thousands of years ago," Lex said. "They were fighting a goddess named Robra. Robra and Télos had once been in a relationship, so Télos used that to distract her so Hero could land the final blow. Everyone thought that he had died after that."

"But the b****** didn't. He was still alive, and it didn't take long for him to take control of the End. He ended up trying to manipulate his chosen - me, at the time, because the idiot I'm sharing my body with hadn't hijacked it yet - into doing all of his dirty work."

Lex closed their eyes, recalling the memories that were still fresh in their minds. "We traitored to Hero's side. Once he and Oracle realized who was responsible, they launched an attack on the End. We barely managed to win, and even then, Télos was still alive. He was different then, not at all like the enemy we had been facing. Claire thinks that something must have happened back during the final battle of the Great War - that his soul and magic were corrupted by Robra's. Télos doesn't remember anything from before waking up in the End after we defeated him."

Aleks opened their eyes and got to their feet. "That was a year ago."

"Wow." Casey's eyes widened, "I- I'm sorry." He didn't know what to say, not understanding the brunt of these men's ordeals to begin with.