summonerd | i just wanna know: who broke it?

i just wanna know: who broke it?

[Sheena'd thought she was all done with dimensional travel, now that the two worlds were united. But here she is, having fallen asleep in one world and woken up in a Tethe'alla that's just different enough from the one she knows to be constantly jarring. Her connections to Aselia's summon spirits dangle loose, snapped by distance - not even Origin's power could follow her here, it seems. That's more than a little unsettling.

It takes her some time, alone in a bizarro version of Meltokio as she is, but eventually she stumbles on a lead - an old scientific journal, a mention of the power of something called an Aegis being able to transcend space and time, at least in theory. And a little asking around tells her that Tethe'alla has its own Aegis, though no one's seen it for years. Well. Worth a shot, right?

Somehow she manages to talk her way into the Tethe'allan castle where the Aegis's core crystal awaits being woken up, with a series of smiles and her very best politicking - yes, of course she's got nothing but loyalty for Tethe'alla, of course she's skilled at this, of course it'd be a great honor.

(Zelos would be proud, she thinks, wryly.)

They're dubious, but her persistence wears them down, or maybe they're just desperate enough for a return of the Aegis's power to let her try, and the orange core crystal is offered out to her.

She takes a deep breath, and reaches out to touch it.]

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Sheena's handling these three just fine, thanks, even if she takes a nick or two in the process. It's lucky that they're all so intent on facing her, really - she's backed up enough that they can't all come in at once, and she doesn't have to worry about them getting out of her attack range if they all want her dead.

Then there's a flash of cyan, of something like feathers unfurling.

Oh, no.

That's not good, and she winces in sympathy at the sight of Lloyd's wings flaring to life, but - she does know none of these blades will be able to do much against an angel's abilities, at least. Once they're all dealt with, there'll be plenty of time for him to recuperate.

Lloyd's power is enough to distract the blade in front of her, too, their eyes going wide as they stare at him, and Sheena swaps to her own knife to go in for a killing blow. Their form wavers and glitches, her knife passing through air harmlessly, and she nearly loses her balance with the momentum of the failed attack.

That's when the cannon fires.

She can almost taste it in the air, an overwhelmingly sharp surge of ether that makes the levels in the mines feel like Sylvarant with the mana at its thinnest by contrast. The shield thrown up over her helps, but she barely even manages to register that, as the earth shakes around them in a furious rumble and the ceiling starts to give way. Sheena screams as well, Zelos's panic and fear and something else she couldn't put a name to if there wasn't a fucking cave collapsing around her amplified to unbearable heights with the ether levels, as she drops to the floor, hands clutching her head.

The last thing she sees is Lloyd, backlit by the glow of his wings, as the stone crumbles, cutting him and Malos off from the three of them.

The blast fades, eventually, and the rockfall ends, nothing remaining but some still-elevated ether levels and a giant pile of stone between them and the only way out of here.

Well. She's alive, and Zelos must be, too, or the emotional link wouldn't still be there. She clings to that, a little tired relief making its way through underneath everything else. Anna's here, too, and it looks like at least one of the blades attacking them had escaped the worst of the rubble, though they're dazed. If they'd lived, then Malos's shields must have held, but--

"Lloyd? Malos?" she calls, uncurling enough to cup her hands around her mouth. There's a rougher edge than normal to her voice, one that kind of hurts to raise it in the first place, but she ignores it. "You guys okay?"

It takes a few seconds for the boiling to finally start subsiding, leaving behind an unbearable ache in Zelos' veins and spasms coursing through his muscles instead. His ears are ringing and he's nauseous, so Zelos spits off to the side, breathing heavily as his body reconnects with his mind.

The ether in the air hasn't so much stabilized as it has congregated and unified. Its levels are still higher than how the mines were before the battle broke out, let alone before the cannon blast hit, and thus the risks of remaining trapped down here for longer than previously estimated have multiplied. The biggest factor is ether poisoning; chances of human complications are way too high now, and the longer they remain here, the worse it'll get for the blades, too. So faster they make their way out of here, or at least out of the blast radius, the better.

Okay, then.

Disoriented but determined, Zelos clicks his tongue, shakily lets go of himself and plants his palms on the rough ground, feels the little pebbles and dirt on his palms through the gloves. He trembles. Breathe in, breathe out. Push the panic down to white-noise anxiety for now. To be perfectly fair Zelos wants nothing more than to lay down and allow the aftershocks of being hit with Sylvarant's cannon to course his body until they've left, but if he lets that happen, if he so much as thinks too deeply on what just happened, he will lock up and die here.

Lloyd's words and Sheena's previous reassurances from their emotional link come forth in his subconscious. He can't have that. There are people here who need him to survive. He got them in this mess, so he at least has to get them the hell out of here, starting with whoever's still nearby. So inhaling deeply and holding his breath, Zelos slowly raises his gaze, a call for his driver half formed on his tongue, and immediately stops.

The part of the mines where they're trapped in is a section leading over to where their traveling party first came from, the exit blocked. With the high concentration of ether in the atmosphere and his own disorientation, Zelos can't, couldn't pinpoint any signals around him. That's why it comes as such a surprise that there are two of Dickson's blades here besides him, currently standing way too close to Sheena and Anna for it to be comfortable, weapons drawn despite the painful amounts of ether that surrounds them, obviously ready to kill if necessary.

Violet eyes settle on Sheena first. Shaking all over, Zelos freezes where he kneels.

Alive.

She's alive.

And if she's alive, so is Malos.

Anna breathes shakily, blinking her eyes. Her insides are still rattled, and panic wraps icy claws around her throat. Her arm is burning, and she's not sure if that's real or just her imagination, but the pain, phantom or otherwise, is enough to keep her where she is for the moment, trying to shoulder past pain and panic both. Come on, Anna. Come on. You're not dead, no one's dead--

No one's dead, right?

She swings herself upright in a somewhat violent movement that makes her kind of dizzy, but she needs to see. She doesn't have the strength to stand just yet but sitting is enough to look around. Zelos and Sheena both accounted for. Zelos looks pretty bad off, but Anna can't imagine what that bullshit felt like to a blade, seeing as they're so sensitive to ambient ether. Sheena's okay enough to be yelling--

Oh. Where are Lloyd and Malos? Anna pushes herself to her feet, scanning the area a little more thoroughly. She's facing Sheena and Zelos, a wall of rubble to her left. Also to her left is a gentle tug from Malos. Looks like they've been separated. Not ideal. Workable.

She reaches up to Malos' core crystal, intending to send some kind of signal so he knows she's fine, maybe check up on him--

Pain explodes in her right calf.

Anna cries out, the pain enough to send her to her knees. Someone just fucking stabbed her, maybe threw a knife at her from behind, and--

Her vision blurs as electric ether hits her system, numbing her nerves and dropping her to the ground like a sack of bricks. Distantly, she hears voices.

"Whaddaya say, Aegis? We can do a lot worse to your driver if you don't come willingly."

"Why don't we just kill its driver and be done with it? That thing'll be a lot easier to cart around if it's just a core crystal."

Anger rears its head in Anna's chest, because Zelos is not a thing, but she can't. fucking. move.

The first voice cuts in again. "Nah, lay off, least we can do is give him a choice." A pause, a huff. "Well, Aegis?"

Anna yelps with pain and then goes down, and Sheena's gaze snaps over to her, and to the blade behind her (way too close to Zelos) with a set of crackling knives in their hand, clearly one short. Fuck. There's a mounting pain in her head, something she really can't place, but it's making it hard for her to concentrate on the emotional link long enough to dampen it. Alright.

There's movement behind her, something she only just catches, and she whirls, scrambling with one hand for the knife she'd dropped as she ducks back away from the other blade, the one who'd been dazed a second ago, attempting to grab her. She pushes herself to her feet as quickly as her bruised limbs will let her, tries to get to Zelos's side - she can't do anything for Anna while these two are here, and they're after him anyway, she can't leave him alone - but her way is blocked by the same blade standing between them. They hold their sword up to prevent her from ducking past as they speak, and -

Something like shock blooms in her chest as they say it, tempered with offense (Zelos isn't a thing).

"What do you mean," she gets out, eyes wide, before her train of thought catches up with her enough to both put it together and realize this isn't the time. Oh, that's bad. And worse, it means they're not really concerned with getting Zelos back alive.

Okay. Deep breath, recollect yourself. The pain and emotional bleed and that cut on her arm that she's realizing now is deeper than she'd thought aren't helping, but she's been worse off. "The only people," and she puts extra stress on the word just to make her point, because she's really getting mad about it now, "dying here today are you two." That's all the warning the blade in front of her gets before she's lunging forward, knife in hand, going in for the kill. They try to back up, but trip over a fallen stone, stumbling.

The hit Anna takes is enough to freeze the fire-imbued ether in Zelos' veins for a moment, guilt crystallizing in his chest as the blades then block and threaten Sheena away from moving, then address him to give himself up. As quickly as it came he then squashes it down. The logical part of Zelos' brain knows that the promise of choice is as empty as it comes--it really, really would be easier to bring back and control him if he's force-restarted through killing his driver, and then no one would have to worry about the Aegis throwing a fit on the way back.

Doesn't matter what the blades offer, what they say--if he puts himself in their hands then Zelos is going to die.

'Like hell am I going to die here.'

Sheena's disgust and shock grip at Zelos tightly, hot and fervent in the wake of his cold guilt. Something in his chest is then emboldened with her push, and he savours it, lets it shakily rouse him up from his kneel. He laughs, gathers attention, and plasters a large grin on his face. "Ooff, tough choice. I guess it's nice of you guys to offer, at least," he grits out, ether pooling in his hands. "Unfortunately, though," Zelos straightens up, scoffs, "you lost me the moment you called me a fucking thing!"

As soon as Sheena lunges forward, Zelos, with a cry, releases the ether in his hands in a short blast that heats up the air directly around all five of them. It's meant to be disarming. Then, he moves quickly to gather that ether around Sheena's knife, setting it alight for her to do as she will with it. She can handle it.

Zelos sways. Discharging ether after the mess that just happened and his own leftover pain leaves him dizzy and with his vision swimming, veins slightly alight again with the manifested fire he has to keep and maintain, but he ignores it to summon his sword in a flash of bright, orange light. He's wasting ether fast, but their survival requires it, so before he can succumb to exhaustion Zelos pushes himself forward as well, over to swing at Anna's attacker with a broad slash, strong enough that it knocks them off their feet upon making contact with their weapon.

Anna bites her tongue and takes a sharp breath, trying to summon enough strength to get back up. Like hell she's just gonna lie here. The paralysis effect seems to dulling, at least-- her attacker having assumed the stab to the leg would be enough to keep her down, but she's Anna fucking Irving.

Is this a terrible idea? Yeah. Does she care? No.

She gets to her feet. It hurts like hell and she's a little dizzy from both the electric attack and how much blood she's losing, but she can push through it. Just long enough to find her dagger, which is set alight with Zelos' fire. Oh that's neat as fucking hell. She forgoes her desire to spin it in her hand, becuase that's fucking dangerous, and she doesn't need any more ether burns--

Zelos knocks the blade closest to her off balance. She lunges forward and buries her dagger in their back, and the stab combined with Zelos' fire makes quick work of them. They dissipate into base ether immediately, leaving their core crystal to drop, dormant, to the ground.

Anna immediately sits back down. Ow.

Zelos's outburst brings a soft swell of pride in Sheena, something small and almost immediately lost in her surprise as her knife bursts into flames. Well. She knows what to do with this, at least. One more stab at the stumbling blade.

This time, she strikes home, sinking into the blade's flesh as the flames lick around it. They scream, a short sound that's cut off by their form also dissolving, and then there's a second core crystal clattering to the earth.

With both blades dealt with (dead? They shouldn't leave the core crystals here, right?), Sheena relaxes a little, taking stock of the situation. They're all injured, with Anna the worst off if the way she immediately collapsed back down to the ground is any indication, and they're still trapped underground, with Lloyd and Malos somewhere on the other side of things. Hopefully. If they'd answered her she'd missed it in the chaos. Sheena swallows down her fear, for the moment. There are all kinds of awful things that could still happen to them, but none of them will matter much if they don't get the worst of these injuries dealt with. Carefully, not wanting to cause a second rock slide, she makes her way over to Anna and Zelos.

"Pretty sure it was just those two," she says as she crouches down. How many had there been before the cave in? She can't really remember at this point, but hopefully they're not all on the other side with Malos and Lloyd. They hadn't been shielded, she thinks. "How bad off are you guys?"

… She's not sure what to do with her knife, still flaming as it is. After a moment of deliberation, she stabs it into the ground to douse the flames.

The end of that mess is a blur of sounds and shapes to Zelos' deteriorating mind. Still, as soon as he hears two screams and the ambient ether drops significantly enough to confirm the two blades' "deaths", with his whole body tingling and his mind swimming, Zelos releases a breath and stumbles backwards after dismissing his sword. Architect, everything hurts. The Aegis barely clings to his conscious through sheer force of will alone, blinking rapidly and trying to find Anna's downed form in the murky waters of his vision and swallowing hard when he finds her.

Sheena calls out at the two of them, but her words are muffled, coming in and out like lapping ocean waters on the shore of his tired, currently one-track mind. He can't quite make out what she said other than a general question on how everyone's doing, and there's a little laugh at that bubbling out of Zelos that can't tell if it's genuinely amused or downright manic. Because, well, he feels like shit, but Anna got stabbed. She's bleeding quite heavily where she sits, too. Like, holy shit; it can't be healthy for a human to lose that much blood.

An idea pops into Zelos' mind and he settles on it without further question. "Well," he gets out while walking forward, coughs, and tries again. Gasps. "There's only one of us that's not standing. So let's... start with that."

When he finally makes his way to Anna, Zelos lets himself plop down onto his knees in front of her, breathing heavily and trying to will down the muscle spasms that come and go all over his body. He focuses on her leg, pulls at the ether in his veins, winces. Yeah, okay. The burning stubbornly remains, particularly surrounding his injuries, but at least it's so constant that it's getting easier to ignore, so. He can probably get away with this.

Alight, then. Focus on the present. Zelos inhales deeply and sets his gaze on the woman before him, then scowls, trying to look as damn serious as he can, both hands held up in front of his face, palms facing Anna. Without further ado he summons a swirling, controlled flame to each palm and tries to replace the previous look with a smile, trying to be as gentle and reassuring as his exhaustion will allow. "Okay," he says, almost apologetic, "show me your wound."

Edited 2019-05-22 15:03 (UTC)

Anna blinks. Is Zelos...? Yeah, he absolutely is.

It occurs to her that maybe she should feel some kind of anxiety, about the prospect of Zelos just causually offering to cauterize her wound like no big fucking deal, but. What else is she gonna do? Bleed all over the place?

"Well. That's one way to do it," Anna says.

She shifts her legs until Zelos can see her calf. Architect, that's a lot of blood. There will be... absolutely no salvaging these boots, huh? Unfortunate, but she supposes the least of her worries.

She looks between the wound, then Zelos.

"Go on, then," she says. "No sense putting it off. Actually." It occurs to her that chances are this is going to hurt about as much as setting a broken bone, so... She yanks one of her gloves off with her teeth and shoves it in her mouth, biting down to brace herself. She gives Zelos a thumbs up.

Edited 2019-05-22 16:08 (UTC)

No time to waste; Anna gives him a thumbs up and Zelos, ready and yet not, draws in a sharp breath and does not let it go, not even when Anna tenses under his hands the moment his fire makes contact with the bloodied skin of her calf.

Okay, here we go. Holy shit, holy fuck. The sudden rush of adrenaline is enough to sharpen Zelos' focus to this task and this task only, at least, so Zelos uses that hyperawareness of what he's doing specifically to hold Anna still while trying to keep his pulse steady and properly cauterize the wound. Breathe out slowly, breathe in slower. It's a good thing that Zelos can control the heat and the intensity of the flames, so he gets working fast, closing the wound to the best of his not-medically-trained ability.

Just keep it steady, Zelos. Keep going.

You can do this.

Anna dies if you don't.

Running on logistics and approximate calculations performed with the last bits of his mental strength and stability, Zelos starts to wheeze as his chest constricts, his internal ether levels ironically dangerously low as he works through the injury. There's still the glowing particles escaping his shoulder and all the other cuts he's received, and his trickery with the fire is costing him dearly after the cave-in, so he sways, eyes drooping, exhaustion and ether depletion evident in his aching veins. His mind fades, slowly, until finally even his sight fails him.

Zelos makes it all the way to the other end of the cut before his ether fails him. Then he collapses to his side, breathing heavily, fighting off unconsciousness while hoping, praying that he didn't fuck that up and a good enough job.

Maybe it's the adrenaline wearing off, maybe it's the fact that her world's Zelos had been a healer, but either way Sheena doesn't quite put together just what he's got planned until he lowers his hands to Anna's injured calf with the flames still dancing in them.

Oh, god. She flinches, looks away just a bit while swallowing down whatever of the emotional bleed she can; the fewer distractions he has for something like this, the better. Anna sways and collapses, and Sheena swears, lunging forward to catch her. She really doesn't want to know what they'd do if she cracked her head open down here. There's just about enough time for her to lower Anna safely to the ground before Zelos slumps to one side, head on her shoulder as he pants.

"Zelos?" she gets out, ignoring the way her heart skips a beat in fear. Cautiously she maneuvers to sit properly on the floor, because she's definitely going to tip sideways if she's supporting even one of them for long, an eye on both as she settles.

They're better off than they were a few minutes ago, but it sure doesn't feel like it. She reaches out slowly with the arm Zelos is leaning against, pulls him into a more stable position against her. Maybe being close to his driver will help, somehow? There should be some way for her to help, she's pretty sure, but she doesn't fucking know it. "Warn me next time if you're gonna collapse," she grumbles, more to herself than anything.

Zelos breathes in deeply, holds the air in his aching lungs, and shakily releases it. How the fuck is he still awake, honestly. It's kind of like a miracle. Being moved around like a doll is a little bit weird, but Zelos is too exhausted right now to care too much, so he focuses his energy in trying to hold onto his driver a little better to keep them both steady.

He wheezes a little laugh at Sheena's comment, though. "'Scuse me, princess," he mumbles, leaning his entire weight against her in some kind of petty revenge. "Sorry ether's literally my lifeblood. 'n' that I use that to fight 'n' heal. My baaaaaaad."

Geez, that was weak, but. Whatever, though. Zelos is a little too tired right now, focusing on staying awake and aware, to try for anything more biting or creative, but at least his voice is tilted upwards in that sarcastic and bitchy tone he's hoping will carry across the whining joke.

Edited 2019-05-23 15:26 (UTC)

"If I look like a princess to you, you must be worse off than I thought," Sheena says, trying to keep her tone light. Oh, this is a mess. Even if they weren't trapped, she can't carry both of them.

That makes her remember there's something she can do, at least. She digs for something in a pocket with the arm that's not helping to support Zelos. "Here," she says, offering out what looks like a slightly oversized piece of candy to him. Please don't make her feed it to you, Zelos. He's not that far gone, right? "Not sure how much help it'll be, but we use these if we're low on personal mana."

Zelos blinks at the candy thing Sheena offers, partly trying to get his eyes to open and his vision to focus on the damn thing, partly because, holy shit, what the hell is she doing offering candy at a time like this? But then Sheena explains, and at least the 'low on personal mana' thing makes it through the fog in his mind for him to realize exactly what she's doing. He snorts. Okay, then. He can work with this. Slowly, Zelos reaches forward to take whatever it is that Sheena offered and gets to eating, and the refreshing feeling of a sudden clarity of mind and strength in his body hits as soon as he's gotten the whole thing down.

He raises an eyebrow. It tastes like lemon. That's... odd, but it gets the job done, so.

Whatever.

Zelos doesn't feel better, but he does feel a little energized and more aware, so now actually focusing on their surroundings comes easier. The ambient ether levels in the cave are still dangerously high, so the next order of business is to get Anna and Sheena the fuck out of here before either of them succumbs to either ether poisoning or asphyxiation. Besides, he's not sure he actually did a good job on Anna, so it'd be for the best if they can get to either a medic or an actual healing blade to get her checked out.

Okay, alright. Alright, alright, alright. The only way to break through this wall of stone and rubble that separates them from the other half of their group is to do something incredibly fucking stupid and dangerous, so Zelos decides not to say a goddamn thing about the plan that formulates in his mind. "Thanks, hon," Zelos says, pushing himself away from Sheena, then rising to his unsteady feet. He sways, he stops, he huffs. Gathers ether in his hands, feels that slight burn in his injuries again, manages to not focus on that now that he has more awareness to do so. "Anyway," he walks over to the wall, sets a hand on the rubble, "you might wanna carry her a lil' further to the back."

At least he warned her, he thinks as he starts painfully gathering the ambient ether into his core, directing it to pool on the palm he keeps against the rocks. It burns right away. Architect, today's fucking hurt so bad. Zelos grunts, grits his teeth, focuses, breathes. Keep calm, Zelos, keep calm. You only get one shot at this and you better not fuck it up.

With that in mind, with his veins burning from absorbing and gathering an obscene amount of destabilized ether, Zelos pushes it forward to meet the rocks in an explosion of fire and pure energy.

Damage check: You're fine, Malos. Anna feels fine. Look around the area for her-- can't see her. There's a wall of rubble where there wasn't before. The tug of ether between his core and the other half of it that sits in Anna's chest is coming from the opposite side of that rubble. Great. Anyone else over here with him?

Oh, it would be hard to miss Lloyd. He's set aglow with those cyan wings that sprout from his back-- he looks. Okay. Not great. The wings seem to be supporting him more than anything else, which is... kind of weird?

Architect, the fuck. Wings.

Does he ask? Maybe later. Now seems like a bad time. Malos gives one more cursory glance. Looks like just him and Lloyd on this side of things. Right.

"Lloyd, you good?" he asks. Best start there.

Lloyd is having a bad time. As soon as the mines started shaking, he felt a rush of - Mana? Ether? - in his body, felt the burn of them in his bloodstream, amplifying his sense of everything around him until it was too much, too much, way too much.

The only bit of knowledge Lloyd is able to properly work through is that they were hit indirectly with the effects of a cannon. Aside from that, he can no longer think past his flooded think tracks, mind so foggy and bogged down with whatever is ailing him be can't think or process more than the immediate, obvious shit.

Lloyd's body feels the heaviest it's ever been. It's as though the blood in his body has been replaced with molasses, the way his pulse feels so slow but pounds so hard in his chest, the way his body feels so slow to react. His vision swims like his mind does, and though he can make out a voice through the haze of it all, he can't really figure out where the source is, or even what they look like.

Come on, Lloyd. Status report. How are you doing?

Lloyd tries to stand from where he's at. The cannon's impact had threatened to throw him off his feet, but his wings had worked to support him instead, lowering him to his knees and allowing him to grab onto the rocks and hold on with the last of his shaky strength. His legs tremble as he rises, the wings behind him fluttering faster and harder as he does, taking up for his weakness.

Everything about this sucks. Lloyd can barely control his body - even standing is requiring almost all of his focus, and he can feel a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck and on his forehead. His arms hang limp at his side, and when he walks forward, his feet drag on the rocks below, causing him to stumble. His wings catch him from falling, but a short yelp escapes him.

"I-I can't -" Lloyd is able to mumble, his voice weak. His pulse speeds up, and through the dense cloud that is currently his mind, panic starts to surge. He feels like he's been drugged, he feels like - like the night at Altessa's, when Lloyd's entire life was flipped upside-down in a few bitter words. He can't control his body, not really, and he's so useless.

Where is Sheena? The ether high blocks Lloyd's ability to process their literal separation, and the fact that he can't see her only adds to the rising sense of frustration and panic. He needs to see her. Taking tabs of what he does know, he attempts to process the information past his foggy mind. They were in the caves. Cannon went off. ?

This is no help.

"Who?" Lloyd bites out, attempting to sound out an actual question and failing. He licks his cracked lips, tries again. "Who's there?"

Malos blinks in surprise at the question, cautiously moving closer to Lloyd. He holds his hands out, wondering if he should help support Lloyd, but not wanting to touch the kid until he's sure that's not gonna make this mess worse.

"Malos," he says, gently, and in case that's not enough: "Y'know, grandpa from an alternate dimension."

Lloyd doesn't look like he's hurt, and Malos was pretty sure he got a shield up around all of them before the cave collapsed, so this probably isn't a concussion. That's good, except the other answer is much worse. Malos tries to remember how long it takes before ether poisoning starts setting in, realizes in horror maybe it's different for humans from an alternate dimension, and-- No, come on, don't panic. Even with the added ether from whatever Lloyd's doing with those wings and the cannon blast, they've probably still got an hour before it gets too bad.

He holds his hands out to Lloyd, so Lloyd can grab 'em if he wants to. "Listen, Lloyd, you're alright," he explains, doing his best to speak slow so Lloyd can keep up. "Ether can do funny things to your head if you're exposed to a lot of it. You'll feel better once we're out of-- ow fuck!"

Sudden stabbing pain embeds itself into his calf. It's sharp enough it drops Malos to his knees. Shit shit shit shit fuck fuck fuck fuck.

"Who the hell--" he spits, spinning around as well as he can to the cave behind him. One single blade stands there, hands up.

"Wasn't me," they say, laughing.

Oh, Architect, that means Anna--

"But I'll be happy to finish the job!" the blade says, summoning their weapon.

They don't even get the chance to move.

There's a sudden, sharp sound of a core crystal shattering. The blade staggers back, horror washing over their face, and then they are nothing but dissipating ether particles and two distinct halves of a core crystal falling to the ground. For a second Malos worries about having to deal with someone much worse than that blade, but then the dissolving ether clears enough for him to see the face of the man responsible. That face knocks the wind right out of him.

Kratos. fucking. Aurion.

Malos. Okay. Malos is in here with Lloyd. That's good, he thinks past the haze of his mind. Malos is good. He trusts him.

Doesn't change the fact that he can't properly control his movements. Every attempt ends up shaky and limp, the way his legs strain to hold up his body shown in the way he trembles. He can't tell if he's cold or if he's hot or what, given how he's shivering but sweating and everything is terrible. Pressure begins to build up in Lloyd's chest, suffocating and anxiety inducing. He can't move like this, can't fight, can't even run. He's useless.

The last time he felt this way, every one of his friends had seemingly sacrificed themselves for him, one by one, falling like dominoes in a chain. His swords lie somewhere in the dirt of this cavern, and he needs them. Needs to pick them up. Needs to be useful. Come on Lloyd, fucking walk.

Malos yelps and collapses. Lloyd subconsciously follows the sound, trying to work past the ether high and help him up, but the moment he takes a step forward, his vision goes momentarily black and he panics, stumbling again. The wings. The fucking wings he never wanted are the only things holding him up and he hates it, another reminder of how he's only been at all useful because of things that never came from his own strength or training. He can't even help his own grandfather.

And then the blade raises their weapon, and Lloyd watches in distant horror as they take aim at Malos, unaware of the tears that are spilling down his face, trying to will his stupid fucking body into doing something to stop this -

The blur behind Malos' vague shape disappears, and another appears behind it. Lloyd squints, best he can past the tears he can't control, and hiccups. It takes a moment of fighting his exhausted, high, and twisted mind, but he can place a name to the figure.

Kratos.

Lloyd's hallucinating. He has to be fucking hallucinating.

Or maybe the universe just hates him that much.

Kratos is not the worst person who could be standing here, right now, though Malos can definitely name a few he'd rather see. Couldn't it have been Jin? Nia, maybe? Someone he didn't have to explain being not-dead to? Never mind that, Malos, Lloyd sounds like he's having a horrible time (and if he's unexpectedly suffering ether high, no wonder) and they need to find everyone else and get out of here--

Malos doesn't have time to think anything else, because Kratos' sword is suddenly pressed to his neck. He blinks. Laughs, startled. Kratos looms over him and Malos, though on his knees, gets the idea. He's not meant to move.

"H- Hey, holy shit, Kratos," Malos gets out, glaring up at his son-in-law. "I get if you're mad but--"

"Friend or foe," Kratos demands, no nonsense.

"Friend, Architect,," Malos swears. "Kratos come on, not in front of Lloyd."

Kratos blinks. Malos notices, now, that he's trembling, his sword not exactly steady where he holds it against Malos' skin. He looks away from Malos to Lloyd, and though most of his face is covered by his hair, Malos knows he's confused.

"Not our Lloyd," Malos explains. "But, a Lloyd. Come on. I'm sure he hates seeing this."

Kratos lowers his sword, though he doesn't dismiss it. "You remember me," he says, and then: "I thought you were dead."

Malos flinches under the weight of that stare. "Yeah, and we shoulda told you we weren't, I know," Malos hedges. He wonders if he's good to get to his feet. Everything hurts like a bitch. Maybe wait, til he needs to for sure. "Look. Can we-- later? We need to get Lloyd out of here."

Ha. Hahahaha, what the fuck is happening.

That didn't just happen, right? That Kratos-like hallucination just talked, just. Threatened Malos. And there's no way that could have happened, right? The world spins from under his feet, swimming like his mind his thoughts his vision. He's fucking hallucinating. Move. Move, Lloyd, move.

"Can't be," Lloyd breathes out, just loud enough to be heard. "Y-you left."

Staring in the general direction of where Kratos stands, the seemingly slow travel of his blood loud in his ears, Lloyd sluggishly raises an arm, holding it to his chest, right above where the locket rests below his jacket. What's he not putting together here? He thinks thinks thinks, frustration built with every piece placed and misconnected. He's forcing square blocks into circular holes, completely unable to put it all together.

It's the fucking worst.

Breaths coming out in short puffs, he slowly shakes his head, eyes narrowing in disbelief. Not him. Can't be him? Is it him? Does he want it to be him?

No.

Lloyd falls to his knees, no longer able to support himself. His wings help him drop down gently, beating hard against the weak air current of the cavern. A shuddering gasp escapes his mouth as he panics panics panics. He's useless and can't control himself Malos almost got hurt did get hurt Kratos is here and Lloyd is weak.

Count to ten.

One. Two. Three. Four.

One. Two. Three. Four. Ffffive?

Lloyd's head swims. He feels as sick as he can feel, as disconnected as his head is from his body.

Count to ten, Lloyd.

But he cannot.

Fine. Stand up Lloyd.

Stand up, Lloyd.

But he cannot.

Kratos closes his hands into tight fists, the hilt of of his sword digging into the skin of his fingers in a way that's grounding, almost comforting. He tries to breathe around the erratic roaring of his ether, the way-too-loud thump of his heart, beating off-beat to everything else inside of him. (He wonders not for the first time if it would just be easier to cut himself open and rip the damn thing out, but likely it is too late for that and he cannot afford dying, not now, especially not now.)

Malos remembers him. Anna is alive.

Martel is in a cannon.

That's all that matters, Kratos. You have to get to her, get to Mithos. Just focus on--

Lloyd speaks. Quiet and confused and hurting, a little desperate "You left" that Kratos tucks away to worry about later, as the severity of Lloyd's current condition makes itself apparent to him. The boy appears to be hyperventilating, and-- The mines. The mines are not safe for humans to travel through, not if they are in here long. Worry for his son (even if that is not his son) overrides his panic, for just a moment.

"How long have you been in here?" he demands of Malos.

"A while," Malos admits. "We got stopped by a bunch of fucks who wanted us dead, and between that and the cannon blast--" Kratos flinches at the mention of the blasted machine, not wanting to be reminded (as if he could forget). "--I think the ether levels in here got fucked, so we really gotta move."

Yes, he does. Martel is in a cannon and he is wasiting time he is wasting time--

(Martel, trembling in his arms clinging to his shirt
not again she pleads never let them put me in that machine again she pleads and
never again he promises, never again--)

"Hey, Kratos," Malos' voice cuts through the fog, and Kratos slams himself back down into the present, anchoring himself with the still-too-fast-too-loud beating of the heart he never asked for. "Stay with us, will--"

He cuts off abruptly, and before Kratos can ask Malos has shoved a knuckle in his mouth and bitten down on it, eyes squeezed shut with both the pain and the effort of keeping a scream in his throat. Confusion and discomfort roil up in Kratos' chest, under the roar of

Martel is in a cannon Martel is in a cannon and you are half a continent away from her while she is suffering, you need to hurry, you need to get her out before they fire it again you PROMISED--

"Fuckin, hell," Malos wheezes, finally. He sits down and shifts, yanking up the leg of his pants so he can assess damage. Kratos doesn't even bother looking becuase he doesn't care, he's wasting time-- "Well," Malos says, voice tight. "That's one way to stop a wound from bleeding. Fuck."

Martel is in a cannon. Anna is alive. She's alive, and every pain she feels Malos feels reflected. (Martel is in a cannon, this doesn't matter-- but Anna is alive. Doesn't that matter just a little?)

"...Anna?" Kratos asks, unable to articulate much else while he is warring with his mind such as he is.

Malos nods, short. "She's- unconscious, now. On the other side of that rubble." He gestures too specifically to be pointing at anything other than Anna herself. "Shit, fuck," Malos wheezes. "If- If you got an idea how to get through that, that'd be great, but-- Gimme a minute if you need my help. If I move I'm gonna pass out and that's the last thing y'all need right now."

"Right," Kratos says, turning to the problem. (Martel is in a cannon-- you cannot reach her until you get past this wall of rubble, anyway.) He wishes briefly that Presea was here, because an earth blade would certainly have better luck than he would. But a concentrated blast of ether, though sloppy, would likely--

Oh.

Kratos hastily slams a shield up around himself and his companions as the rubble explodes.

Edited (KRATOS WOULD NOT SHUT UP ) 2019-05-25 20:30 (UTC)

Lloyd can hear Kratos and Malos' conversation, can hear the way Malos' voice wavers in the face of so much pain, but like before, all he can do is sit and watch this shit go down, unable to process it, unable to do much more than try unsuccessfully to control his rampantly off-pace breathing. Eyes wandering around the cave, numb tears still falling from them, he sees the bright wings protruding from behind Lloyd curl around him, shrouding him in their light. It's a little comforting, even if Lloyd has no idea how they're being controlled right now, or even has the mind to wonder.

With a fight, he forces himself to sit back from on his knees, gasping a little from the effort it takes just to do so. Trying to bridge the disconnected gap between his weakened perception of the world around him and the distant heaviness of a body he feels like he's not in, Lloyd places a hand on the ground and forces his legs to hold him up, come on, come on, get up, Lloyd -

The cave earns a red tinge, and then the loud noise of an explosion echoes throughout. Lloyd flinches, greater angel hearing amplifying the sound and causing the harsh discord to ring through his ears. For a few seconds, the sound bounces around the cavern, and then it's gone, but the impact of the explosion and the sudden introduction of such an awful sound was enough to make Lloyd fall flat on his ass again. The wings are still curled up around him, covering his face, showering the cave in their vibrancy, but as he tries again to stand, they unfurl, instead helping him to stand again with powerful flutters.

He looks out from where the rubble once was. Three blurs, one of which is straight up lying on the ground. One of them is purple, the other orange. Lloyd squints, forces a better understanding of the situation, and grasps onto a rock protruding from the wall. Sheena is there? Right? Zelos? Maybe? Where's Anna, is that Anna on the floor?

Man, he's trying so fucking hard.

Either way, he forces a step forward. And then another, and another. The walk is slow, unsteady, and he's sweating harder than he was already, just before all of this, but. He needs to see Sheena, if that's her.

After a few moments, his feet stop meeting the ground. Lloyd blinks, looks down, and finds himself hovering only an inch of two off the ground, wings taking on his weight. And because of that, the few meters between him and Sheena are easily crossed, and he's able to properly see her. Already feeling the panic die down just a tad, he pushes the weakest grin he's ever worn in his life.

"Hi," Lloyd rasps out, exhausted and shaky, "high? I am."

Martel have mercy, this is the fucking worst.

Blowing up the wall of rubble to get to the other side? Probably a valid idea. Blowing it up by siphoning ambient ether into himself and then releasing it explosively, when said ether is destabilized and the action will most likely drain him of whatever ether Sheena's recovery item helped him gain? The stupidest idea, actually. By far. Ever. Of all time.

As soon as the wall's down and Zelos can see the cyan glow of Lloyd's wings, relief settles into his core at the fact that he managed to reunite both teams. Good, good. It's quickly replaced with confusion and alarm, however, when he sets his eyes on the newcomer instead, some blade with a red core crystal on his chest--and that is a blade, Zelos knows, because even if it's not as brilliant in the dust and dirt of the explosion, a core crystal's glow is still easy to pick apart from a mere ether crystal's glow. Zelos blinks, looks around. Malos is down, but that's to be expected; his driver did get injured, and they're sharing a core crystal, so.

That leaves him, Sheena, and the blade, because Lloyd sure looks like he's starting to feel the effects of poisoning.

Great.

With the situation assessed and the damage taken into account, Zelos' next instinct is to get on the defensive against the intruder. Maybe it's one of Dickson's blades, even if Zelos can't recall even seeing him in the fight. Still, he has to be careful. He spreads his legs into a fight stance, but, unfortunately, before he can do much else, with a zap of pain in his body the exhaustion at being drained of ether again settles in with a grunt.

His vision's swimming again. He's still injured and aching. Right away Zelos' legs give out under him, leaving him kneeling on the dirt and panting once again. He raises his sight to the blade and glares, as if daring him to move, trying in vain to gather more ether in his hands. It still burns. Architect damn it, not now, not when there's a new threat he can't fight back against.

Zelos's warning gives Sheena enough time to move Anna, at least - a little slowly, because she's not used to carrying people taller than her, even when she's not dealing with a handful of small injuries that are enough to slow her down further - and even to crouch down a little in front of where she settles her, hands up in front of her face to put up a shield that should hopefully protect the both of them. It's not perfect, but she'll take a little bit of hot air over the full strength of Zelos's ether.

He blasts the rubble away, and the ceiling doesn't immediately crumble on them, so Sheena lets her seal fade as she straightens up, taking stock of the situation. Malos, injured but conscious. Zelos, sitting down hard with exhaustion. Kratos, looking like he's having about as good a time of the rest of them. Lloyd, backlit by his wings, unsteady on his feet - no, he's not even on them, she realizes, as he crosses the cave.

Wait, Kratos?

Before she can ask about that, though, Lloyd's made his way to her. He sounds… gone. Anna and Malos had warned them that the caves were dangerous for humans, but she feels - well. She doesn't feel great, but she's pretty sure she's doing better than Lloyd is, right now. "Nah, I'm alright," she tells him, her answering smile more worried than anything. "Think you can hang in there a little longer? I'm not sure how we're gonna get all of us out of here." Her gaze roams over their group again, heart starting to sink. Even with Kratos's sudden appearance (seriously, what did she miss?), they're going to have a hard time with two people down, one unconscious, and Lloyd apparently in the grasp of an ether high.

The first thing Malos does when the rubble's out of the way is run to Anna's side, which Kratos can't exactly say he expected to go any differently. He has half a mind to follow the man, but for some reason it seems his feet are rooted to the ground. Anna is alive. She is alive, she is alive, even though he never thought he'd see her again--

(You never thought you'd see Martel again and she's the one in the cannon)

Kratos' eyes slide away from his wife, taking in the two faces he doesn't recognize. Actually. Just one face. The girl who's talking to Lloyd is a stranger, but the blade on his knees in the dirt, still glowing with expent ether-- that's Zelos. Tethe'alla's artificial Aegis. A lot of things quite suddenly click together in Kratos' mind, and with them quite a large handful of questions.

But first--

Realizing he is still holding his sword, which has every right to make the Aegis nervous, Kratos lets his weapon disolve again into ether and holds his hands up in a gesture of peace. The Aegis has nothing to fear from him.

"Right, now for getting out of here," Malos says, though Kratos does not take his eyes off of Zelos. "I can carry Anna--"

"That's a bad idea," Kratos interjects before he thinks, like he's a man five years younger, like the weight of unnecessary grief doesn't still sit on his shoulders.

"Irvings aren't exactly known for good ones," Malos counters, which Kratos concedes. "I'll be alright, though. Zelos, you good to walk?"

IT'S ALL FUCKED

WHOOPSIE DAISY WE GOT INVOLVED IN A WIDDLE FUCKY WUCKY

CAN THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE

(SPIDERHAM VOICE) IT CAN GET WORSE

SOME CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AMONG THIS CHAOS AT LEAST

I'M SO PROUD OF HIM

ME TOO WHAT THE FUCK

LET'S GET SERIOUS

ANNA'S FINE WITH THIS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sY2rjxq6M

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Alright kids we're gettin outta here

but first let's take it back now ya'll

420 BLADE IT

I'D LIKE TO WRITE A FORMAL APOLOGY TO LLOYD IRVING

Lloyd Irving and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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TAKES A HAMMER TO THE TAG IT'S FINE IT'S FINE

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