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“With the light of creation reformed, I can build a barrier to keep The Hunger at bay. I can build a home that all of us can be safe in together…. Save for Lup. I’m so sorry, Taako, Barry, there was nothing I could do.”
Lup.
Taako’s head is still reeling, memories fading back into existence of another person, someone who had been with him all those years he remembered being alone – his sister, how could he have forgotten? Logically he knows he had no choice in the matter – the only thing that allows someone to work around the Voidfishes’ capability is being technically dead, as far as they know – but still. And not only memories of his sister, but of everything else that had been missing from his memories – all of that static just gone, the gaps filling in as if they’d never been there in the first place.
“We – we don’t have much time, but I believe we can afford several moments for you all to… process everything. It’s a lot of information to get back all at once.” The Director’s voice is somewhere between sad and hopeful as she surveys her employees – no, partners? Friends? (Well, most of them, at least; Killian and Carey and Angus are still here, and as far as Taako understands they were never Red Robes. Though at this point it wouldn’t surprise him if they had been at one point too.) The door had been closed and barricaded as soon as Magnus and the two Regulators had arrived, and the Director’s tense posture hasn’t changed since then. “And I believe we’d do well to plan our next actions, quickly.”
There’s still a lot to process, his gaze absently following Davenport – their boss, who would’ve guessed – as the shorter man approached the Director. She leans down toward him, their mouths moving in hushed conversation. His ears prick forward a bit, straining to catch whatever words are being spoken, just like he and Lup had done when they were younger, out on the road and trying to stay out of sight and out of danger and –
“Taako? You alright?” The sound of Merle’s voice snaps him back to the present, single concerned eye peering up at him from behind his glasses. The iris is grey, no longer the hazel that it used to be; somehow it’s less unnerving than it should be, with the color just… gone. Merle’s eye looks away from Taako’s face for a moment, glancing slightly lower to Taako’s hands holding the umbra staff. He realizes how tight his grasp on the handle had become somehow, his knuckles paling with the strain. It takes all of his self-control to not immediately let go of the umbrella, instead forcing himself to relax his grip and form a smile on his face.
“Just peachy, my dude. Taako’s gonna have a sit for a moment.” The dwarf raises an eyebrow at him, but says nothing else, and Taako takes the moment to escape to a further corner of the room. Settling on one of the benches – not too uncomfortable, all things considered – he fidgets with his clothing for a moment, unnecessarily straightening his skirt and top before moving on to his hair. It’s long, he notes somewhat absently, longer than it had ever been when he and Lup were on the road together; funny that he can remember those details now, all of his memories sliding back into place as if they’d never been gone to begin with.
His hands smooth back down the front of his shirt, catching on a small lump in one of the front pockets. Frowning, he reaches in, pulling out a stone of farspeech that’s definitely not his own; he must have picked it up in the backroom of Fantasy Costco, just among the things that Garfield had left there. He turns the somewhat-familiar weight over in his hand and, almost before he’s aware of what he’s doing, he finds himself tuning it to a frequency he knows well, focusing on the stone’s magic to activate it.
“I – hey, Krav.” Taako’s voice sounds shakier to his own ears than he would have liked, and he takes a breath to steady himself before continuing. “Just checking in, seeing how the whole Astral Plane deal is treating ya.” He doesn’t want to admit that he’d seen Kravitz, struggling in what looked like a sea of oil, and had just left him there; even if there wasn’t much he could have done, not if he wanted to bring Magnus’ soul back, and he’d barely managed to do it with Merle’s help as it was. But still, he feels guilty. Not that he’d ever tell anyone that.
He pauses for a moment, waiting for the smooth voice of his – friend? Dare he think of a bounty hunter of the goddess of death as more than that, even if he wouldn’t mind it being so? – to come from the enchanted stone in his hand, or maybe the slightly ridiculous and wholly unnecessary accent that meant Kravitz was in the middle of a job. Instead he’s met with silence, which, while not completely unheard of, is still unusual enough to put him a bit on edge with what’s been going on lately. His ears flick back, a nervous twitch that he’s never been good at hiding; Lup had always given him a hard time for it, saying it made it harder to pull of their cons, even though she was always the one antagonizing their targets, calling them out and ready to fight at all times –
Taako clutches at the stone of farspeech a little tighter, the imperfect edges digging into his palm and grounding him in the present. He feels a tingle of something akin to static at the edge of his magical focus, which he pushes away in a manner similar to the way he pushes his hair away from his face.
“Well, I guess you’re a bit busy there, my dude. But I – I was hoping –” Hoping what, exactly? Taako hadn’t exactly taken the moment to think things out before he’d called, he’s realizing. But since he’s bothered Kravitz already, there’d be no harm in just talking for a bit, right? The bounty hunter had said he doesn’t mind hearing Taako’s voice while he works, so long as it’s not too hairy of a situation. “I just thought you could do with a chat with good ol’ Taako.
“See, funny thing is – well, you know how you had that bounty on me and the boys when we first met? Back in the crystalized lab? Turns out there is a reason for all those deaths you have logged, and – well, it’s quite the juicy story, my man. You know those red robes I’ve told you about, those bad dudes that we’re supposed to be avoiding? Apparently I’m one of them – actually we all are. Well, most of us.”
He shoots a glance over at Carey and Killian, the latter who’s currently being tended to by Merle himself in the form of a bandaged arm and what he can only assume are some fatherly words of advice to fuck some shit up. “It’s all a bit weird, I won’t lie, my dude. There’s a lot we were forced to forget, thanks to another voidfish the Director has been keeping, but – but now we’re starting to remember. About being red robes, the IPRE – don’t ask, I can barely remember what the thing stands for – and—” His voice cuts off, the next words still hard to say out loud; saying it out loud makes it real, means he’s admitting that he had forgotten. “And, well, I have a sister, apparently.
“She – her name is Lup, and we’d been together since the day we were born. We never really had a home, at least not for long, but Lup – she was always there with me. We were always there for each other. Both of us were good at magic, always had a knack for it, so we went to—” The name hasn’t come back to him yet, just a vague collection of memories, of him and Lup spending hours practicing and studying, always together. “—to this academy back home, and she was always better than me at evocation spells, and gods was she in love with her fire spells, my man, you have no idea, and—”
It’s a lot, all of the memories coming back to him now, all in a big rush and out of order. There’s a collection of instances, blurred together from the sheer number of them, where they would waltz into taverns and gambling houses, playing their game and winning the money they needed before leaving. He remembers being on the road with Lup, finding their way into caravan crews with his cooking and her ability to fight; he remembers Lup shouting at a group of bandits who tried to rob them once, standing her ground as she launched spell after spell to keep them alive. They were together, and they kept each other safe – outcasts, but never truly alone.
“I – she – I couldn’t remember her, not until now. The voidfish, what it does to your memories – I forgot she even existed. I – it’s – how do you forget you have a sister, you know?” His voice pitches up, just enough to be noticeable – hysterical, he’s getting to be hysterical. He pauses, taking a shuddering breath before continuing, forcing his voice back to normal.
“But it’s – even though I couldn’t remember her, some part of me still knew she was gone, I think, and I missed her. I still do – gods, Krav, I miss her, and—” And what? Lup had died, somehow, and Taako can’t remember how, even now; he hadn’t been with her – his sister, his twin, his partner-in-crime – the one person he knew he could trust to have his back, always. And he hadn’t had hers.
Taako can feel his eyes beginning to burn, his vision blurring as his gut twists. He wipes furiously at his eyes, brushing away the tears before they can begin to fall.
“Sir? Are you alright?”
Taako glances up to see Angus, the young boy looking at him with big eyes from behind his equally big glasses. The kid is smart, Taako has to admit; he’s never seen anyone latch onto things the way that Angus does, studying every detail so he can truly understand. And as much as he and Merle and Magnus make fun of him – well, tough love is real.
“You, um, you look a little upset.”
“Nah, I’m all good, bubbeleh. Just having a sit.” It’s easier than it should be to just let the lie roll off his tongue, the smile coming to his face just a bit too quickly. He can see Angus looking at him, head tilted just a bit as he considers his mentor. “Gonna take more than another voidfish to mess ol’ Taako up.”
“If… if you say so, sir. I mean, I know I only got to learn that the baby voidfish exists, but from what the Director was saying, it sounds like you have a lot more to remember, and I just wanted to make sure that you’re doing okay, and if you need anything I —”
“I’m fine, Ango.” He reaches over to ruffle Angus’ hair, just a little rougher than strictly necessary, other hand still cradling the stone of farspeech. “Your boy detective skills are better put to use elsewhere. Nothing to sleuth out here.” He flashes another smile, hoping to convince Angus so he’d move along to elsewhere.
“Well, okay then. I’m going to go check on Merle, and Carey and Killian. I –” Angus pauses, furrowing his brow. “Thank you for trusting me, sir.” He flashes a quick grin, a genuine one, before scurrying off to bother Merle. There’s a beat as Taako watches him, surprised by the thanks as much as by his honest care for the people at the Bureau.
“I – uh, sorry about that, my dude. You’ve met Angus before, you know how he is.” Taako clears his throat, a nervous laugh escaping his mouth. “’World’s greatest detective’ and all that.” Lup probably would have liked him, he realizes, the thought coming to him just as easily as any other now. It’s… weird. Familiar, but also not.
“Anyways, it’s – yeah.” There’s a weird ache in his chest, he realizes, and he nearly begins tearing his clothes off to check for an injury before he realizes it’s not a physical one. “Cheery news, isn’t it? Oh, and there’s this weird thing – dunno if you know what it is, since you kinda work for a goddess and all that – but it’s – we’ve been calling it The Hunger? I’m still not really sure what it is, but it’s definitely some bad shit, my dude.”
Taako wonders if the oozing, oil-like tar that he’d seen gripping at Kravitz on the Astral Plane had anything to do with The Hunger, especially now that he can remember what it looks like, sort of – an enormous, dark mass, streaked with swirling colors and descending upon planes to devour them whole. The thing that’s looking over the Bureau of Balance headquarters right now, sending down its creatures to lay waste to the plane and its inhabitants. A shudder passes down his spine, a heavy weight settling in his stomach when he thinks about the fate that could very possibly befall him once things were set into motion; to all of them, really.
“Look, Krav, my dude, just – just be careful, yeah? I know you’re technically dead and all, but—” It hits him, truly hits him, that this could be the last time any of them have to themselves. Once things kick off, they would have no time to waste, and it would either end in their victory or their death. Which, apparently, might not be as permanent as he once thought; but still, it was the principle of the matter.
“Taako! Come on, we’ve gotta get going! The Director’s got a plan!” He glances up, catching sight of Magnus as he yells to him from across the room, near the Director’s desk. Taako raises his hand, acknowledging that he’d heard, before dropping his gaze back down to the stone cupped in his palm. What if these ended up being the last words he got to say to Kravitz? He can’t remember what the last conversation he’d had with Lup was, and that feels wrong; something so significant, even if it only becomes that after the fact, should be more, somehow.
“Kravitz, I —”
The words catch in his throat, unable to push past the tightness there. No, not those words, not now. Taako may be somewhat of a fool, but he’s no sap.
“I better see you again, my dude. You still owe me that second date.” Technically, he owes Kravitz, but it's all details – besides, who wouldn’t want the pleasure of his company? He just wouldn’t admit that he also wants Kravitz’s, because that would just be a bit much; and gods, Lup may not be here, but he knows that she would never let him live something like that down.
“Well, Taako’s off, my dude. And… if you see Lup over there in the Astral Plane, can you tell her… tell her I’m gonna find a way to bring her back.” Probably not the best message to tell a bounty hunter of souls to deliver, but Taako knows he’s never been the brightest when it comes to that sort of stuff.
He’s always had Lup, after all.