Chapter Text
It was dark, empty and cold, and it had been like that for so long you could not be sure you knew what light felt like any more. As Heir of Void, you should surely be used to the gnawing, clawing feeling in your chest and all the despair it entails, but instead as every second turned aeon that floated passed felt as if it were dragging a small part of your soul away from you as well.
It had been all your fault. You had known there was no chance of you standing up to the highblood, not with Nepeta tucked away safe from harm. You should have refused the rogue-blooded foul mouth his orders but with his adamant nature and your inclinations, at the first mention of Nepeta possibly being in danger you had gone on your way. You had made sure you beloved moirail was safe from harm before going to speak to the highblood who had newly recognised the hemospectrum.
And then you had died.
Even in what was assumedly a dream bubble, the memory of your death was extremely fuzzy. Faded. As if the Void itself was protecting your mind from it. You remember an arrow passing through the fleshy weak spot of your knee, almost ironically bringing you to your knees in front of the purple-blooded troll and then the extremely-familiar snap of a bow.
It was not as if you simply could not guess what happened next, the thick grooves in your neck telling the story all by themselves. It was simply the fact that you could not bring forth the memory, for whatever reason, which had unsettled you initially. It had been seemingly eternity since any real thoughts had settled in your mind, unsettling or not.
Then the Void around you gives a sudden shudder and light floods the bubble almost instantly. Your eyes, unaccustomed to even faint light by now, erupt in pain and you hasten to screw them shut, cover them with your claws. After spending so long in the darkness, the light is agonising; fitting for the Heir of Void.
“Equius?” And all the Void, the darkness rips from your cardiovascular system in a moment at that sound – that voice. Ignoring the pain (you can be STRONG enough for this, you know it), you turn towards the voice. A dreadful voice at the back of your mind whispers this is the Horrorterrors toying with you, that attempting to keep you in the Void for so long could not break you but they knew this would. But the you see her face, awed and hopeful and something inside you just breaks.
“Nepeta,” you murmur, moving faster than you ever remember being able to move and she is doing it too and then you are both in each other’s arms, clawing and groping for the better purchase of each other. There is a wetness on your chest and on your face and at some point your sunglasses had fallen from their permanent perch on the bridge of your nose onto what was assumedly the floor of the bubble and then there was a claw on the top of your head, but incapable of carding through your hair. You freeze.
“You kept it,” she squeaks, pulling away. Her face is smeared in a faint green with a few speckles of faint indigo and somehow she has never looked more beautiful then she does now. She reaches up, almost tentatively and it is so unlike her you simply want to fuss the worries away. You are stopped by something being pulled up and over your horns, the damaged one done so carefully it squeezes your chest something awful. When you glimpse the colour everything makes sense; the cat hood you had been gifted before going to seek the highblood. She stares up at you, more green tears welling in her eyes.
“You asked me to hang on to it,” you stammer, feeling for all of Alternia that you had done something ludicrously wrong despite simply following orders, “Forever.” She starts to cry for real this time, full chested sobs which crack your blood pusher with every noise. You are shooshing her before you even consciously decide to, wiping away her tears and cradling her close in an effort to stem the sadness you apparently caused. She sniffles once, twice, pulls away and flashes you a grin so sudden it leaves you dumbfounded.
“And I said that I would see you again soon, Equius,” she nudges your chest with her head, “And here I am.” She flashes that grin at you again and you simply cannot do anything but smile back because here she is, the girl who could take the Void from the Heir of Void and make everything okay and despite being dead you have never felt so invincible.