Work Text:
The silence was deafening.
You could hear the blood pounding through your head as you kneeled in front of Batter's broken form, sprawled across the office floor. Alpha floated behind you, weakly hanging onto the last of its health.
"Well then?"
Your eyes darted upwards, only to be met with the overbearing glare of the guardian of zone one.
"Are you just gonna stand there next to his pathetic corpse?"
Blood seeped into your shoes, dried on your hands, and dripped slowly from Batter's body. The sharp metallic scent hurt your head badly, and the unending green of the room did nothing to stop ache behind your eyes.
"You better get out of my sight before I kill you too, wretched Puppeteer."
Alpha's glow was soft and comforting. A sound, a whisper of a song seemed to play on repeat through your head over and over again, blocking out the sound of footsteps that grew closer. If you didn't move, you'd be killed.
Killed like the Batter was.
Words went in one ear and out the other, turning into static as you pried the weapon from Batter's firm grip.
"What part of 'I'm gonna kill you' do you not understand?"
The sound grew louder as you stood up, the blood of your puppet staining your knees, making the feeling of the fabric uncomfortably sticky.
It was still warm.
"What part of 'I'm gonna kill you' do you not understand?"
Your hand tightened slowly, the iron of the bat was cold against your palm.
"You'll taste the pain, you sick spirit."
Something snapped, the sound stopped.
It was all fake anyways.
You slammed the bat into the side of Dedan's head, the force of the hit almost breaking your wrists. A shriek, a piercing yell broke free. Uncaring, you raised it above your head again, viciously beating down over and over. You could vaguely hear yourself screaming over the sound of bone breaking as your hands grew warm. There wasn't anything except the ringing in your ears and the pain that was slowly building in your arms. Blood splattered against your face, and rained down onto the floor in showers of red.
The orchestra was deafening.
Or at least, that's what you thought.
"... Oh dear."
The sound of another voice broke through the haze, and you stopped, arms raised mid-swing. Breathing in sharply, you suddenly realized how heavy the bat was.
"... Zacharie?"
He stood in the doorway, taking in the red stained floor, the two broken bodies, and your shivering form.
"I... we weren't prepared at all, Batter was taking hits and I was running out of CP to heal him, and then Alpha took a really hard hit and I was out of items at that point, and then Batter d-died and I didn't know what to do-" Your voice caught in your throat and a sob forced its way out. You dropped to your knees, and the violent shaking that was holding itself back finally started up again. You didn't realize you were crying.
"I d-didn't mean to, I never meant-"
Walking over quietly, Zacharie gently unfolded your clammy fingers from their grip on the bat and set it down beside him. His arms wrapped around you in a hug as he pulled you close.
"You're gonna be OK."
The tears stung as they washed the blood away.
"Everything is going to be fine."
His embrace was warm and comforting.
"We can fix this."
You let yourself be held by Zacharie as the faint dripping of blood faded away into silence once more.