Will I ever get a break?
Being in a mad scientist's lab. Escaping. Surviving an explosion.
This was definitely not his day.
Arthur felt his legs trembling as he ran. Avalon was still working inside him, repairing what could be repaired, closing what was open, restoring his ability to move. His ribs no longer creaked. His leg no longer hurt when he put weight on it. His arm—the one that had been crushed under tons of rubble—responded with a strength it shouldn't have had yet.
Bang.
A shot. Kiana, a few meters behind him, had stopped to cover them.
Bang. Bang.
Two more. Arthur turned slightly and saw her: standing behind a fallen tree, a pistol in each hand, firing at the tide of beasts emerging.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
A beast fell. Then another. Then another. But for every one that fell, five more seemed to appear.
"Kiana, run!" Arthur shouted.
"I'm coming after you!" she replied, without stopping her firing.
Arthur clenched his teeth and kept running. Beside him, Emilia was gasping for breath.
"Emilia," Arthur said, taking her by the arm. "Lean on me."
She didn't argue. Arthur felt her weight against his side, and though every muscle in his body protested, he kept moving forward.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.
The beasts roared. The gunfire didn't stop.
"I can't keep this up!" Kiana shouted from behind. "There are too many of them!"
Arthur looked ahead. The forest stretched on, endless. Behind them, the beasts were closing in. Ahead, only snow and trees and the hope of finding somewhere to hide.
At this rate, the beasts would catch up to them.
"Kiana!" Arthur shouted, stopping. "Let's switch! I'll shoot, you run!"
"You don't know how to use a gun!"
"It doesn't matter!"
Kiana looked at him for a moment. Her bright blue eyes assessed the situation. Then she nodded. She ran toward them while Arthur turned to face the beasts.
Caliburn appeared in his hand. Technically, it wasn't a gun, but it could also be used to shoot.
"Let's go!" he shouted, raising the sword.
Kiana and Emilia ran past him. Arthur was left alone facing the approaching black tide.
His hands were shaking. The core barely pulsed.
But Avalon continued to glow in his chest, warm and steady.
"I'm not going to die here," he murmured.
And he raised Caliburn toward the sky.
The tip began to glow, preparing to fire.
"Caliburnnnnnnnnn!"
The sky lit up again. A pure, golden light fell from the tip of Caliburn like a divine ray.
The beasts closest to him vanished instantly.
Arthur lowered the sword with one last effort. His hands were trembling. His legs buckled, leaving him hollow, exhausted, barely conscious in his own body.
"Arthur!" he heard Kiana's voice, distant, as if coming from the bottom of a well. "Arthur!"
He wanted to answer
But before he could utter a word, the world went black.
And he fell.
XXX
Why is this happening to me?
What did I do to deserve this?
Why?
There were no walls. There was no floor. There was no ceiling. Only darkness.
"Mom?" she called, in a small voice. "Dad?"
The echo did not answer.
"Daughter, you must know that Mom and Dad love you very much."
The voice came from somewhere other than the darkness.
"Really?" she asked, hugging herself. "Where are you?"
"Where are we?" her mother's voice laughed. "Daughter, we've always been with you."
She didn't see a hand. She didn't need to. She felt a finger pointing at her chest.
"Here."
"But I can't see you," she said, and her voice broke.
"You don't need to see us," her mother replied softly, just as she used to when she lulled her to sleep, though she no longer remembered exactly what that was like. "As long as you remember us, that's enough."
She clenched her fists. Her nails dug into her palms.
"Why can't you be with me?" she asked, and this time her voice trembled with something that wasn't cold.
"I already told you," her mother said, and her voice was firm now. "We're with you."
Liar.
The word didn't leave her lips.
Liar. Liar. Liar.
If you were with me, I wouldn't be alone.
If you were with me, you wouldn't have let them take me.
If you were with me...
XXX
"Dad," she whispered in the darkness. "Why does Mom lie?"
"Lie?"
Her father's voice came from somewhere in the darkness, deliberate, as if he were carefully choosing his words before speaking.
"Hmm. It's not a lie if she's telling the truth."
"I don't believe you."
The words came out harsher than she meant. Sharper. Because he had left her too. He had disappeared too. He had also…
"But we really are telling the truth."
Her father's voice didn't waver. He was as patient as ever.
"Are you going to lie to me too?"
The question hung in the void, and for a moment there was no answer. Only silence. Only darkness. Only the echo of her own voice bouncing off the edges of her consciousness.
"No," her father said at last, and his voice sounded different. "I would never lie to you."
"Then," she said, clenching her invisible fists. "Where are you?"
"Here," he replied, and his voice sounded sad. "Always here."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to stomp her feet like a little girl, because that was what she was, in the end: a little girl lost in the darkness, waiting for someone to come and rescue her.
But the tears wouldn't come. The crying wouldn't come. Only emptiness.
"I hate you," she whispered.
"I know."
"I hate you so much."
I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.
If you hadn't taken Mama away.
If you hadn't taken Mama away, they wouldn't have taken me.
If you hadn't taken Mama away…
XXX
It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.
Because they put me on the table.
Because they inject me with that.
Because they cut me.
Because it burns.
Because I don't die.
The girl trembled in the darkness, enveloped in the fire that consumed her from within.
And then, a voice.
It wasn't her mother's voice. It wasn't her father's.
"Tell me? Do you want to live?"
The girl blinked. Her invisible eyes opened in the darkness.
"Live?" she repeated, confused.
"Tell me? Do you want revenge?"
"Revenge?" she whispered, and something ignited within her chest.
"Tell me? Do you want power?"
"Power?" her lips trembled.
The fire grew.
"Accept."
The word echoed in the darkness like a heartbeat. Like an oath. Like a sentence.
The girl closed her eyes.
And she agreed.
The nightmare had to end.
XXX
The sky.
How long had it been since she'd seen it?
Days? Weeks? Months?
She'd stopped counting long ago.
The girl opened her eyes. The gray sky stretched out above her, infinite, cold, but real. No metal. No ceilings. No artificial lights flickering endlessly. Just sky.
She sat up slowly. The snow crunched beneath her hands. She expected to feel pain, expected to feel the burning that had accompanied her for so long she no longer remembered what it was like to live without it.
But no.
It didn't hurt anymore.
"Wasn't I supposed to have a companion?" she murmured, her voice hoarse. "That voice said I wouldn't be alone."
She looked around. Debris. Smoke. Snow. Burnt trees. The smoking crater in the distance. And she, alone in the midst of it all, like a ghost newly born.
"Then why do I feel incomplete?"
She touched her chest. Her heart was beating. But there was something else. An emptiness. A void. As if she were missing the other half of herself.
It didn't matter.
She stood up. Her legs didn't tremble. The wind ruffled her hair—long, dirty, tangled.
Now she was free. Even if she was incomplete, she was free.
She would ignore that voice whispering from within. The one telling her to destroy everything.
Right now, she just wanted to walk.
XXX
"Ugh."
A figure emerged from the rubble.
Blonde hair covered in dust and ash. Torn clothes, scorched at the edges. A braid that had come half undone, with loose strands falling over a face smeared with soot and blood.
It was Eleanor.
But she wasn't alone.
In her right hand, something glinted. A spear. White, pure, so luminous it seemed to defy the darkness.
"Looks like bringing you along was a good idea after all, Flower of the Abyss," said Eleanor, with a weary but triumphant smile.
The spear vibrated slightly, as if responding to her words.
She stood up more firmly than before.
"Now…"
She wasn't supposed to stay behind so little Arthur could escape. That had been the idea, hadn't it? She stayed behind, covered his back, and he ran toward the exit. A simple plan.
She doubted very much that she would survive that explosion.
"It would have been better if he'd stayed with me," she murmured, pressing the white spear against her side.
The wind blew. Snow began to fall, covering the footprints of those who had left.
"Nothing ever goes the way I want it to," she muttered dejectedly, lowering her head.
Her reflection in the spear's blade was blurry, distorted. Her blonde hair was covered in ash. Her blue eyes were tired, lacking the sparkle they once had.
"I have to go back," she said.
She prepared to walk. But then...
A shadow covered the sky.
It wasn't a cloud. It was too big.
Eleanor looked up.
A massive ship hovered above her. White, imposing, with golden edges that shone even in the gray light of the Siberian sun.
"Oh..."
The word escaped her lips like a sigh.
A ramp unfolded from the bottom of the ship, and a figure began to descend.
Hair as white as snow. Eyes as blue as ice. Small as a child, dressed like a nun. And on her face, an expression Eleanor knew all too well.
Anger.
Concern.
Relief.
"You're late," Eleanor said, with a trembling smile.
The figure landed in front of her. Her boots made barely a sound as they touched the ash-covered ground.
"I'm sorry," replied the small figure, in a voice that didn't seem to belong to such a tiny body. "I had to travel halfway across the world to find you."
The nun looked her up and down. She saw the torn clothes, the scorched edges, the dried blood on her side. She saw the white spear Eleanor still held with a trembling hand. She saw the weary, almost ashamed smile on the blonde girl's face.
"And what do I find?" said the nun, crossing her arms. "Someone who threw a tantrum and ran away from home, only to end up in a Honkai eruption."
Eleanor lowered her gaze.
"It wasn't a tantrum."
"Oh, really?"
"It was… I needed space."
"Space?" the nun raised an eyebrow. "Space in the middle of Siberia? In an illegal lab? In the middle of an explosion?"
"The space wasn't my choice," Eleanor murmured. "The lab thing… it was an accident."
"It's always an accident with you."
Eleanor wanted to reply, but the words wouldn't come out. She knew she was right.
"I'm sorry, Aunt Theresa," she said at last.
Theresa Apocalypse sighed. Her stern expression softened slightly, just slightly.
"We'll talk later," she said, extending a small hand toward Eleanor. "Now come on up. You need to see a doctor."
Eleanor took her hand. The sensation was warm, familiar. Like when she was little and would hide behind her aunt so her father wouldn't scold her.
"Come on," said Theresa. "The Valkyries will clean up this mess."
"Besides," continued Theresa, walking beside her with short but firm steps, "what on earth was that light?"
Eleanor blinked.
"Light?"
"The one we saw from the ship," Theresa explained, frowning. "Golden. Bright. It came out of this area a few minutes ago."
"I'm sorry, Auntie," she said, her voice tired. "But a few seconds ago I was in the rubble. So I didn't see anything."
Theresa watched her in silence, hoping to see a lie on her face.
But Eleanor just looked exhausted.
"Well," Theresa said at last, turning toward the ship's ramp. "Let's go up."
She simply walked beside her down the white corridor, staring straight ahead, while medical staff approached with stretchers and thermal blankets.
"Director," said a nurse. "We need to examine her."
"Do it," replied Theresa. "And prepare a report. I want to know the true extent of her injuries, not just what's visible."
"Yes, Director."
Eleanor let herself be guided to the stretcher. The touch of the blankets against her skin was an immediate relief.
Before closing her eyes, she caught a glimpse through the ship's window of the forest, the crater, and the Valkyries descending in small groups to finish off the beasts still roaming among the rubble.
"Aunt, thank you for coming to find me."
"Rest," Theresa replied, her voice suddenly sounding much softer.
Eleanor closed her eyes.