Chapter Text
Tim had showed up in the med bay with Lyfrassir in his arms. Marius didn’t know what to say, he was kind of panicking at how small they looked like that. Tim refused to say anything about it, but he saw the blood staining his shirt. Marius knew that something had happened, and Tim had died and now Lyfrassir was unconscious and he wasn’t telling him anything.
After he set Lyfrassir up in one of the cots he asked Tim if he could keep a watch over them. He just needed to go on a walk, to think about things. He didn’t expect to find Ivy in one of the lower decks of the ship, leaning against one of the Aurora’s consoles like she had been waiting for him the whole time.
“I wanted to talk to you,” She said.
“Huh.” That was all Marius could come up with right now. Huh.
Ivy crossed her arms. "The Aurora showed me some footage."
"Oh?"
"She really likes Lyfrassir, you know." she continued. "Not like Nastya, of course, but she's rather fond of them."
"They report and repair damage. It seems natural the ship likes them."
Ivy pushed a button without breaking eye contact with Marius. The room was filled with familiar audio.
“I’m not crazy. You heard them, and that means I’m not crazy. I know they’re trying to tell me something, but I haven’t figured it out.”
“Do you hear that all the time?”
“No, not all the time. You’re not listening to me, Marius. I have to understand them.”
Ivy pushed another button without giving Marius time any time to react.
“Fucking kill me, Von Raum! You kill people all the time so kill me!”
“Okay, let me just get my gun-”
“Hah, no, no, no, no, you can't shoot me, that won't work. Marius, please, please, please…”
"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Ivy asked once the audio finished playing.
"Oh, like you care."
"They are my friend. I have known them just as long as you have." She crossed her arms again, jaw set. “I found them standing in the engine room the other day. They had a pipe in their hands, and there's a eighty seven percent chance they were going to use it to destroy something before I stopped them.”
“Why would Lyf do that?”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “Because they're falling apart, Marius. Their mental state is deteriorating and now it seems like the rest of don't even know the full scope because you've been hiding it. Did you ever think that one of us could help them?”
“Jonny tried to throw them out of the airlock the first time they really met, so excuse me if I'm a bit skeptical how the others would take it,” Marius snapped.
“Then just tell me or Raph! Or Tim, or Ashes, or someone else close to them, but someone. Their condition is almost completely undocumented, and your inaction has landed them in the med bay.”
“What are we going to do now then, Ivy?!” He shouted. “What could we possibly do to stop this? We’re immortal but we’re not gods, and that’s exactly what we’re dealing with right here.”
She paused for a long time. “I’ll search the archives for anything similar. There has to be something at least adjacent to it so we know where to start.”
“What if there isn’t?” Marius asked, all of the anger and energy deflating from him.
“We’ll cross that bridge if we get to it.”