The sound that announced Soubi's arrival was not a cacaphony of destruction, but a dead silence. Anger was not hot and burning. It was cold and without any room to feel anything else. A chill sharper than a knife that seeped into the waking world as he ran, frost forming on the half-thawed ground of spring. Coating his path in ice as fast as it took the heart to beat. The power it took to do this leaking from him without a thought - his emotions unchecked.

He did not care that there were others in the garage, save that they were between him and his sacrifice. The sacrifice he could not feel, the one he was not strong enough to protect, not able to find because their bond was a flimsy as rice paper. And it was his fault. It had to be.

Soubi didn't stop at the door, the ice forming on everyone and everything as he moved to kneel next to Ritsuka. The anger that bled out directed as much at himself as it was the Joker. His knees gave out as he lowered himself down, dropping him hard to the floor, body shaking at the proof before his eyes that he had completely and utterly failed his only duty in all ways.

His mouth opened, but he couldn't find the words.