The night air screamed. The village bells of Oruko were no longer just tolling; they were wailing like a bereaved mother.
"Poro is dead! He's just lying there!" Scooby cried out, his voice cracking. The goofy mask had completely shattered, leaving behind a terrified boy standing in the middle of a crime scene.
"Leave him! He was a weight we no longer need to carry!" Fogo roared. He snatched the glowing Celestial Stone from Lighter's hands and shoved it into a leather satchel. "Scorpion, Mama, clear the path! Scooby, if you don't bring the girl, I'll let Lighter break your legs here and now!"
In the flickering light of the dying hearth, Scooby looked at Ada. She was trembling, her eyes wide as she stared at Poro's lifeless body. The trauma had frozen her. Scooby didn't think; he acted on a primal instinct to protect. He scooped her up in his long arms. To the others, it looked like he was taking a hostage. To Scooby, he was carrying the only piece of heaven he had ever known away from the hell he had helped create.
"Run!" Kanpe hissed, his eyes darting toward the window as torches began to flicker in the village square below.
They leapt from the balcony into the dark gardens of the estate. The Celestial Stone in Fogo's bag was pulsing erratically, bleeding out waves of golden energy that clashed with the dark mist of the forest. As they crossed the threshold of the village gates, the stone let out a final, violent throb of power.
A bolt of pure, golden lightning arched out of the bag. It didn't strike the ground. It struck Scooby and Ada simultaneously.
Scooby gasped as his vision turned white. It felt as if his soul were being pulled through a needle's eye. He felt Ada's heartbeat not as a sound, but as a thumping inside his own chest. He felt her terror, her memory of the jasmine scent in her room, and her sudden, confused realization that the boy holding her wasn't a monster, but a fool drowning in his own mistakes.
The Accidental Bond had been forged a soul-link created by the stone's reaction to Scooby's desperate desire to save her.
They collapsed into the tall grass of the forest outskirts. The rest of the cult boys hovered over them, breathless and panicked.
"What was that?" Mama whispered, her troublesome nature finally replaced by genuine fear. "The stone... it spoke."
"It didn't speak, you idiot, it discharged," Fogo spat, though his hand trembled as he touched the satchel. He looked down at Scooby and Ada. They were both unconscious, their hands locked together so tightly that their knuckles were white. "Something is wrong. They're breathing in sync."
"Fogo, we have to go," Scorpion urged, his jester's bells silent at last. "The hunters are coming. Daddy John will have the whole village armed with silver and iron."
Fogo looked at the unconscious pair. He could kill Scooby and take the girl, but he sensed the power lingering between them. He was a manipulator above all else. If they were bonded, he could use that bond.
"Lighter, carry them both," Fogo commanded. "We head to the Deep Caves. If we can't sell the stone yet, we'll use the girl to keep her father from burning the forest down."
As Lighter grunted and hoisted them up, Scooby's subconscious was a kaleidoscope of Ada's life. He saw her childhood, her secret dreams of leaving Oruko, and her pity for the goofy boy at the well. And within that bond, Ada saw him too. She saw the loneliness behind his grin and the way Fogo had twisted his heart.
The robbery had been catastrophic, but in the ruins of the night, an intoxicated, magical connection had been born one that would either save them both or ensure they died together.