At the focus, the attention and the share of the emotions, Chris gasped. Touching the sigil and feeling his summon's mind brush against his own, it was the sort of clarity one only achieved in a dream. It couldn't have been real and yet Chris felt down to his bones that this was how it should have been all along. Someone who had been waiting on the other side of this link for so long to feel this way about Chris. Regret soon flooded through him and he made himself break away completely. It was nothing short of monumental will power that allowed him to disengage, because they had to. There was no choice of sticking together with Leo chomping at the bit to separate them until they all understood what had happened.

"It's not your fault," he assured. It felt hollow, sounded hollow, everything was already trying to close in on him. He had to keep himself set apart long enough to appease Leo because Chris was going to come back for Cole. He couldn't bear the thought of letting him down after feeling such pure and humbling intention from his summon. "It isn't your fault. But I... we have to go." That hurt. It was hurting, but he tried to let himself work on automatic to make sure he could go through with it. "This isn't something anyone expected to happen... so we have to go and report it."

When Chris took another step away, Leo moved forward and placed a hand on his arm comfortingly. Chris sighed long and shaky before he shrugged Leo's hand away and they shared a look. There was so much more to it than that, but it didn't matter what excuse they would use. They were still going to be apart and there was no two ways around it. Turning only once he was sure Chris would follow, Leo murmured, "Let's go."