Work Text:
I decided to write this because I felt the ending could have had the Burnish stay so the rest of humanity can learn to accept them after three decades of discrimination. Making the Burnish regular humans again feels pretty contradictory since that was what the racists wanted all along, for the Burnish to not exist. The Promare still leave but in this AU, I had the Promare permanently mutate the Burnish's bodies so that they are still flame-wielding humans.
Director Imaishi confirms all of the Burnish inside the Parnassus are alive: https://twitter.com/AnimesocMegan/status/1195823117878341637
Screenwriter Nakashima confirms the Pizza Guy is alive and well too: https://twitter.com/soukatsu_/status/1177940511602216960
Planet Earth(along with the entire solar system) was set on fire(the non-harmful type) through Galo and Lio's combined wills and the captive Burnish inside the Parnassus. This had satisfied the Promare's urge to burn and stopped them from blowing up the planet, thus putting a stop to Kray's migration scheme. Since the Promare's urges were completely satisfied, they returned to their dimension and closed the interdimensional rift afterwards. Galo and Lio settled back into their separate bodies on top of the Parnassus as Galo De Lion shrank down to it's normal size and it was the Deus Ex Machina again since it was no longer covered in Burnish flames.
Did we do it?" Galo said as he got down on all fours to take a breather.
"I think so." Lio sat down and produced a flame in his hand. "I cannot hear the Promare's voices anymore."
"Galo!" Lucia called out as the rest of Galo's Burning Rescue teammates ran over to them.
"Are you okay?!" Aina asked.
"You had us worried back there!" Heris remarked.
"Did you stop Kray?" Ignis asked.
"Oh hey guys!" Galo immediately stood up after seeing them. "Don't worry, we're fine! The Promare went back home now! So the Earth is not gonna blow up! No one needs to migrate! Problem solved!"
"You're going to need to fill us in on this." Remi stepped forward.
"I can." Aina said. "I was there in Professor Deus' laboratory with them too."
"So that was where you two were after the city was set on fire?" Ignis asked.
"Yes, Captain." Aina confirmed. "We found out where the Burnish's powers came from. They came from the Promare living deep inside the Earth's core."
"Promare?" Remi asked.
"Never heard of them." Varys said."
"The Promare are aliens from another dimension, they've arrived here on Earth thirty years ago." Aina explained. "At the same time the Great World Blaze happened. It turns out that the ill treatment that the Burnish faced over the years was causing the Promare to go out of control and make the magma gradually rise to the surface, causing the Earth to almost explode!"
"And the Parnassus is powered by draining the Burnish of their flames, causing them a great amount of pain." Heris quietly added. "That is why those volcanic eruptions occurred suddenly at the exact same time the ship was activating the warp engine."
"But the Promare are gone now, so the Earth is not going to blow up any time soon." Lucia said. "But...they still turned a lot of people Burnish so now we're going to have to resume our normal lives as it were before the Promare left."
"So I will still be a criminal on the run." Lio said, causing everyone to turn their attention to him.
"What are you talking about?!" Galo asked incredulously. "You helped saved everyone from Kray and stopped the planet from exploding!"
"I still burned down people's property and endangered innocent people's lives all because I listened to the Promare." Lio said. "Not to mention that I almost burned down the city to ashes in order to get Kray to set my people free."
"But still...you saved the whole planet from exploding into smithereens and you were only trying to save your people since they were dying!" Galo protested.
"It still doesn't fix the fact I've caused so much damage because I was a vessel for a life form who urged me to burn until there's nothing left." Lio argued.
"But you didn't kill anyone!" Galo said. "And you can make up for it by helping us rebuild the city!"
"But what about the other people in the city who don't trust me?" Lio asked. "What if they refuse my help?"
"Don't worry! I'll be by your side every step of the way!" Galo jabbed a thumb at himself. "If the haters give you heat, I'll put 'em out! Through spark and flame, I got your back!"
Lio stared at Galo doubtfully before he finally smiled. "I swear. Galo, you really are an idiot."
"Yeah! I'm the universe's number one fire fighting idiot!" Galo loudly announced.
Galo held out a fist to Lio and Lio bumped his fist gently to Galo's.
Suddenly, a loud explosion came behind them that alerted everyone on top of the Parnassus.
Everyone turned their attention to the source of the explosion and saw an extremely angry figure covered in flames blast onto the roof.
A furious Kray Foresight was glaring at them with crazed red eyes and a new prosthetic on his left arm.
Everyone except for Galo and Lio were shocked at the sight of Kray wreathed in flames without it harming him.
"Kray was a Burnish all this time?!" Aina asked.
"So that means..." Heris trailed off, greatly sickened at the idea of someone committing genocide against his own people.
"Y-you..." Kray turned his attention to both Galo and Lio furiously now that his plans for migration were now ruined by them.
Everyone prepared themselves for the onslaught they were about to face.
"YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!" Kray sent a large wave of magenta and yellow flames at them.
Galo braced himself as Lio made a fire wall in front of them to block Kray's flames.
"Everyone get out of here now!" Lio yelled as he struggled to hold up the wall. "I'll handle him!"
"But what about you?!" Galo asked.
"I'll be fine! Just go down into the ship and free the Burnish!" Lio yelled back.
If you're thinking about helping him, I got another Matoi Tech armor ready in the Rescue Mobile!" Lucia told Galo. "Just be safe okay?!"
"Thanks, Lucia!" Galo grinned with a thumbs-up.
"Remi, Varys, Lucia, and Vinny!" Ignis ordered. "Stay back and help Galo and the Mad Burnish leader fight Kray! The rest of us will go down there and free every Burnish inside the ship!"
"Yes, Captain!" Remi, Varys, and Lucia saluted.
"Vinny! Vinny!" Vinny saluted.
Remi and Varys ran back to get into their Rescue Gears(which they hoped still was in working condition) while Lucia and Vinny ran back to the Rescue Mobile to survey the whole fight and help by using in-built weaponry.
As for Ignis, Aina, and Heris, they went into Aina's plane to free the Burnish still cuffed inside the ship.
Lio immediately launched himself at Kray and they traded fiery blows one after another while Burning Rescue got their gear and weapons ready. The two then fought in the air afterwards by using their own flames to fly.
"Don't worry Lio!" Galo said as he got into his Matoi Tech and readied his weapon. "We're coming!"
As Lio and Kray continued to fight in the air, Lio furiously rebuked Kray for every horrible thing he has committed.
"You bastard!" Lio growled through gritted teeth. "You hurt and killed the Burnish! You took the lives of my brothers and sisters just to succeed in your plans! You don't give a damn about anyone else but yourself! You stepped on millions of lives to build your reputation! You even went as far as to try to kill Galo after everything he's done for you!"
"One, the Burnish deserved whatever treatment came towards them! It is your fault for letting yourselves be controlled by the Promare and starting fires! Two, their lives had to be sacrificed in order to ensure the fate the mankind!" Kray listed his excuses one-by-one. "Three, it's politics. You cannot get anywhere without taking advantage of anyone. And number four, I never asked for that walking eyesore to follow me around and he was of no use to me anymore after I used him to cover up my condition."
"Not all of us Burnish want to hurt people! Some of us just want to live far away from the rest of society so we don't hurt anyone with our flames!" Lio argued back. "You're the ones hunting us down and experimenting on us just because you want to make yourself look like the savior of mankind! You already knew about the Promare in the Earth's core, but you didn't try to stop them from blowing up the planet! You were just planning to migrate the entire time and didn't care if millions of people were going to die! And all Galo wanted to do was make you proud! He looked up to you! He worshiped you! But you still threw him away just because you're too self-centered to see the good in him!"
"You have no right to lecture me when you and your people have also endangered the lives of innocents with your actions!" Kray yelled. "Think about how many people were hurt and killed because you couldn't hold back the urge to burn everything to the ground! Stop acting like you have the moral high ground when you don't!"
"I don't willingly commit genocide against anyone, including people aren't Burnish! And me and my people try to refrain from killing unless we're forced to!" Lio argued. "And we also leave escape routes for those trapped inside the buildings we set fires to! You don't care about the well-being of other people unless it concerns ONLY YOU!"
"SHUT UP!" Kray roared as he sent a large flaming fist towards Lio, who gracefully dodged it before sending a barrage of fiery arrows towards him.
Kray readied another attack before he was tackled by a hard object.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!" It was Galo fully-clad in his Matoi Tech armor again, screaming his lungs out as he hooked his staff around Kray's prosthetic arm, swang him around in circles, and then sent him flying back down to the ground.
He switched his weapon to gun mode and shot multiple ice bullets at Kray as they both fell down. Kray tried to shield himself from said bullets as he tried to slow his descent.
"Galo!" Lio yelled as he created a path made of fire for Galo to skate on.
Galo landed safely on said path on two feet and gave a big thumbs-up to Lio. "Phew! Thanks, Lio!"
"YOU AGAIN!" Kray furiously shouted as he angrily flew up to ram into Galo, his flames gathering in his prosthetic arm.
"Galo, look out!" Lio yelled.
Galo jumped off the path Lio created for him and danced around Kray's flames before straight-up punching him hard in the face that sent him flying down to the ground again. "HIIIIIII-YA!"
After Kray landed back on the roof and left a large dent. Kray then had to shield himself from ice bullets fired from Remi's gatling gun. Lucia also fired multiple freezing missiles to try to freeze Kray solid. Kray furiously tried to blast the freezing ammunition away from the mixture of flames and ice caused it to create thick mist that obscured his vision.
Before Kray knew what was going on, he was then punched down back to the ground by Varys in his Rescue Gear. Kray landed back on the roof of the Parnassus hard enough to leave a huge dent in it. Lucia then quickly froze Kray solid with another round of freezing missiles until he was completely encased in a block of ice.
"Hmph! Serves you right!" Lucia huffed as she popped a lime-flavored lollipop into her mouth.
"Vinny! Vinny!" Vinny happily rejoiced at their victory.
Lio carefully lowered Galo and Varys back onto the roof and all of them went to check on Kray's newly-frozen body.
"Lucia? Status report?" Remi said through his comm.
"He's completely immobilized." Lucia stated in a-matter-of-fact manner from inside the Rescue Mobile. "He's unconscious, but we need to get him to the Burnish detention facility before he wakes up."
"Roger that." Varys nodded.
"Aina! We need you and your plane to transport Kray and Freeze Force to the Burnish detention facility, stat!" Lucia said through her comm.
"Okay! I'm on my way!" Aina said through her comm.
"Vinny and I will stay up here just in case Freeze Force does anything funny." Lucia said through her comm. "And we'll make sure to let you know if Kray wakes up."
"Vinny! Vinny!" Vinny said.
"Lio, you go on ahead." Galo said as he pulled out a spare comm from one of his pockets and gave it to Lio. "You want to see if your people are safe, don't you? Just let us know when you finally reached the engine room and Lucia will launch us there."
"Thanks, Galo. I will." Lio said before he flew down into the engine room.
By the time, Lio reached the engine room all of the Burnish rejoiced at seeing their selfless leader again.
"BOSS!" All of the Burnish inside the engine room happily shouted at his return.
Lio smiled at the fact they were all still alive before contacting everyone above. "Okay everyone! I'm in the engine room, so you can come down now."
"Alright!" Galo yelled.
It didn't take long for Galo, Remi, and Varys to reach the engine room since Lucia installed drills into their mechs to dig their way through.
Aina and Heris were absent since they were tasked with transporting Kray and all of Freeze Force to the Burnish detention facility so it was up to everyone else to free all of the Burnish from their confines.
Lucia and Vinny searched the Parnassus for food, medical supplies, volunteers who were willing to help, etc.
After Aina and Heris returned, they evacuated the Burnish from the Parnassus group-by-group.
It took a very long time to get everyone out of the ship and back onto the ground since there were thousands of Burnish held captive there.
Galo, Lio, and Burning Rescue were very thankful no one died. As for the traitor that sold out his own people in exchange for his own freedom, he was also to be transported into the exact same detention facility Kray and Freeze Force were imprisoned in.
Lio glared daggers at the traitor before immediately cuffing his wrists and ankles with his flames to prevent him from escaping.
The other Burnish glared at the traitor too as they surrounded him in case he tried to escape.
"Pl-pl-please, Boss!" The old man begged. "You can't put me back in there, you can't!"
"You reap what you sow." Lio said coldly. "Because of your betrayal, innocent people were hurt and killed. You chose to leak our whereabouts to Freeze Force and by extension, the Foresight Foundation. All because you only wanted what was best for yourself. You also nearly doomed the entire world and it's people as a result, you will spend the rest of your life behind bars along with the same people who hunted down and oppressed us."
Galo stepped up to hand Lio a freeze-pistol and Lio cuffed the traitor with ice before turning to his two lieutenants.
"Take him away." Lio ordered.
"Yes, Boss." Gueira and Meis said in unison as they roughly took the traitor and threw him into Aina's plane.
Aina immediately flew back to the detention facility to transport the traitor there.
Lio and the other Burnish were still homeless though and all of the buildings in the city were devastated and occupied by fearful non-Burnish people so they had to sleep outside. They were provided with tents for shelter just in case it rained. They were also given sleeping bags so they could sleep comfortably. As for food, supplies, etc, they had to enlist the help of Burning Rescue to scrounge the whole city for them since the non-Burnish were still afraid of them.
There was also the important task of rebuilding the city, so Burning Rescue had to alternate between rebuilding and tending to the Burnish.
Deus Prometh's artificial consciousness was revealed to have survived the lab explosion and aided everyone in Promepolis in their reconstructions through his inventions.
After the whole city was reconstructed, Prometh was made the new governor of the city since it was his inventions Kray stole from him that made the latter famous.
To make up for the inventions that hurt and killed Burnish, Deus Prometh reserved a district within Promepolis where Burnish could live freely guarded by incorrupt policemen, in case any of the non-Burnish decided to attack them.
Lio, Gueira, and Meis were sentenced to 30-year probation and community service for arson. They were required to work with and be supervised at all times by Burning Rescue. So that meant they had to live with them until their probation was over. Galo volunteered to take them into his apartment so he could keep watch over them 24/7.
As for everyone knowingly involved in the Parnassus project(except Heris of course), they were all sentenced to life in prison without parole on counts of inhumane experimentation, murder, assault, hate crime, and misuse of authority.
Heris had shown remorse in her actions and helped save the world, so she was sentenced to a life of servitude to the new governor and had to be under supervision at all times under the governor's and Burning Rescue's watch. Aina was to look after her older sister at all times.
All of the Burnish were given reparations for the abuse and mistreatment they were given over the past three decades. The non-Burnish were highly discouraged from assaulting them in any shape or form as a result. The Burnish were allowed to use their powers in self-defense according to the new laws set by Governor Deus.
As for the heroes of the world, they were all celebrated as heroes worldwide and were given medals by the governor. It was a shining new era in the history of Promepolis now that the Burnish were now allowed to exist without hate or fear.