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Lup had been alone for years. The constant isolation in this small, black curtained room drove her nearly insane. She hadn’t seen another person’s face in over a decade. She was devoid of contact. Devoid of hope. She was alone.
But then she heard his voice again. Her dear twin brother’s voice rang clear as day from outside this room. To anyone else, this voice might sound quirky or odd, and they’d simply cast it aside as another voice amidst a swarm of sounds. But to Lup, it was the most amazing sound in the world.
It was the sound of hope, the sound of freedom, and the sound of love. It was the first sound she’d heard at all in the last decade that she hadn’t created herself. It was the sound that meant her brother was okay, and that there was some chance she might be okay too. The second she heard it, the sound overwhelmed her, surrounded her in excitement and relief, and deep, deep longing. She desperately wanted to see her brother’s face, feel him in an embrace. That was impossible though. But still, she got to hear Taako’s voice, any voice at all, and she was overwhelmingly grateful for that.
Obviously, her twin was unaware of her presence, since she was trapped in an umbrella. The Umbra Staff was a powerful item that absorbed the magic essence of defeated foes. If only Lup had known that her own creation would consume her. When she was stabbed in the back, Lup’s lich form emerged from her body. She was pure magic energy, and the Umbra Staff reacted accordingly, opening up to suck her in and trap her in this little room.
Lup could sense Taako getting closer to her, and could also hear a couple more voices accompanying his. The voices of her dear friends, Magnus and Merle.
Then she felt a hand come into contact with the umbra staff. Not Taako, but Merle. She sighed and muttered, “that just won’t do.”
Sorry Merle, but Lup needed Taako. She sent a small electric shock up to the handle of the umbra staff, forcing Merle to let go. She felt his hand release the umbra staff with a jolt, and it clattered to the ground. Then she felt Taako’s hand on the handle, and the entire room seemed to warm up just a little as his fingers closed around the curved wooden handle, and Lup relished the feeling.
He was here. He was safe.
But something seemed off. It was obvious to Lup that it was Taako, Magnus and Merle that had found her. But they didn’t seem to recognize the umbra staff, nor the red robe on the skeleton beside it that was once her body. It seemed to be of no significance to them. Was it possible they had forgotten those things? Lup didn’t have a great idea of how much time had passed since she’d been trapped in here, but it felt like plenty of years had passed. She supposed that would be enough time to forget Lup’s creation, and the significance of the robe she wore. Or perhaps it just hadn’t clicked in their minds yet that she was in there.
Hopefully they would remember soon enough.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Something was definitely off.
Lup had been there with the three boys throughout their adventure. She was there when they found the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, and they didn’t show any sign of familiarity. No memory of the destruction it caused, of all the towns it erased. Even as it erased another town, they didn’t remember.
She was there when they met up with Lucretia, and they acted like they were meeting her for the first time. Even Lucretia didn’t seem to know them. And Davenport? He was completely gone. The only thing he could even say was his own name.
Even Barry... Barry didn’t remember anything.
Lup listened as Lucretia told them about the seven grand relics. She had created a entire bureau dedicated to finding and retrieving them. But why was Lucretia the only one who knew about them? Why was she trying to retrieve them so badly?...
Oh shit.
Lup knew exactly what she was trying to do.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Taako was on a date with the fucking grim reaper.
The moment they sat down together, Lup started to panic. There was no fucking way he would let her continue to exist if he found out about her. She was a fucking lich, a being who constantly defies death, tied to this world by emotions alone. There was no way she could let him find out about her.
Lup tried to calm herself down. She was in the Umbra Staff, cut off from the rest of the world. Taako had been carrying the Umbra Staff around for months and still had no idea she was in there. There was no way that Kravitz would be able to know she was in there.
At least, that was what she thought.
The moment he sensed her, she felt it. It was like a wave of cold washing over her, sending a chill down her spine. Kravitz instantly transformed from his regular handsome self into his reaper form, scythe in hand. “There’s something here,” he said.
Lup was trembling. She may have spent an entire decade in this umbrella but no way was she going down in it. She was not going to be sent to the Astral Plane without having one last look at the world outside, one last look at her brother and her friends. She had overcome death so many times and she wasn’t going to stop now. Not like this.
Not like this.
She had no choice. She had to kill him. She had to kill him or she was gonna die and she was not ready to die for good. Lup forced the point of the Umbra Staff at Kravitz, who was still searching frantically for the being he had sensed. She had to do it.
But of course, Taako fought back. He tried to point the staff towards the sky but she knew she couldn’t let him. Taako didn’t understand. He was going to find her and he was going to kill her and she wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready for this.
Lup charged a fire spell to send out of the Umbra Staff, while still trying to point it towards Kravitz. But just as she sent a beam of fire from the tip, Taako managed to jerk the staff towards the air, sending a brilliant beam of flame into the sky. “Damnit, Taako,” she cussed.
Then Kravitz came back over to Taako, and he handed him the Umbra Staff. Lup could feel Kravitz’ cold, clammy hands around the staff and shuddered, feeling a chill all around her. She silently pleaded that he please not try and send her to the Astral Plane. But she breathed a sigh of relief when she felt Taako’s warm grasp again, putting her a little more at ease.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Lup had company.
Before her lied the lich that had tormented her friends. These two liches took Taako’s dexterity, Merle’s eye, and ten years of Magnus’s life. They forced the three of them through utter hell and nearly finished them off. And through all this, Lup felt Taako’s pain. She desperately tried to get out, tore at the curtained walls, trying to find some way, any way to save him. But there was nothing she could do but sit there helplessly and suffer through the pain.
Two liches were responsible for this, but only one was with her now.
This would have to suffice.
“Wh-who are you?” Edward said to Lup, “What is this place?”
Lup laid her eyes on the lich on the ground of her little black curtained room, and seethed with rage. “Are you the one who’s been hurting my brother out there?”
Edward paid her question no mind, too filled with questions of his own to answer hers. “Am I... where are we?”
Lup gritted her teeth. “I’m going to fucking kill you now.”
Edward finally met her gaze, but before he could say anything, Lup was already blasting him with a fireball.
Edward took the hit. The impact knocked him against the wall. His eyes filled with fear as he struggled to cast a counter attack. But Lup blasted him again and he yelped. He dashed to the side just in time to dodge another fireball from Lup. He continued to run around the room as Lup blasted fireballs at him nonstop.
Lup’s rage intensified with each flaming ball she cast at the lich. He had hurt her brother. He had hurt her. There was a fire in her chest almost as hot as the fire she was casting at him. Soon she was screaming as she threw everything she had at Edward. Flame after flame she grew angrier. Until finally, Edward was gone.
Lup drew heavy breaths, power and rage still coursing through her, overrun with adrenaline. But she let it seep out of her, slowly calming down. She looked around the room. The curtains were singed and torn, their elegance completely destroyed.
Lup fell to her knees, the impact of what she had done finally hitting her.
Edward was the first person she had seen in years. And she had killed him. Although she had been alone for over a decade, she had never felt more alone than she did right now.
Lup was alone.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
There was a physical change when Taako sipped the water from the voidfish. It was like a piece of Lup was returned to her that she didn’t even know was missing, even though it was Taako who regained his memory, not her. A century of memories returned to Taako all at once and Lup felt like a wave of physical force had just hit her. Her emotions were so in tune with his that it had a physical effect on the room she was in.
Her brother remembered her again.
Then the room started to feel more intense. Like a storm gathering, there was wind swirling around Lup, getting more and more intense. It was as if there were bursts of lightning surrounding Lup, the temperature rising until the room was filled with pure, burning rage. Rage for what Lucretia had done. Rage for stealing a century of his life. Rage for taking away his sister.
Taako raised the Umbra Staff and pointed it at Lucretia. “Ten.”
~•~
Surrounded by darkness, creatures from the hunger, Angus picks up the Umbra Staff. Lup can feel him trembling. He’s trying to seem like he’s brave, but on the inside he’s absolutely terrified. Lup liked Angus well enough, but in this moment, she knew there was no way she would let him die.
Lup gathered her strength and built up a huge fireball. She felt Angus’ shaking hands raise the Umbra Staff and point it at one of the monsters, and Lup fired. Waves of heat surrounded her as she sent a huge ball of flaming magic energy out of the point of the Umbra Staff, engulfing the monster.
Angus began to tremble even harder, and when he spoke to Taako, the fear in his voice was unmistakable. “Sir, I-I didn’t cast that spell!”
“I know,” Taako said firmly.
He knew. Taako knew she was in there and in that moment Lup knew he was going to get her out.
Angus tossed the staff to Taako. He gripped it with both hands, one on each end. Tension rose as he hesitated with the Umbra Staff in his hands, knowing exactly what to do next. Lup couldn’t breathe. Her heart was pounding, slightly chilly air was surrounding her, she could hear the blood rushing in her ears.
This was it.
Taako raised the Umbra Staff in the air and snapped it over his knee.
It felt like a bomb had gone off. Not only for Taako and the others, but for Lup as well. An overwhelming wave of force shook the entire room, and she was at the center of it all. The walls that had held her prison for so long, so fucking long, shattered and burned away. Lup was blinded my magic energy. She could feel power surging from her, engulfing her body and swarming the area around her. Not the little black curtained room, but something else. Somewhere else.
Lup rose high in the air, engulfed in a huge beam of light, surrounded by flames and fireworks. Pure, raw power. She didn’t hold back. She released all of the power she had in her, creating a brilliant show of arcane energy, bright and brilliant.
She finally got a glimpse of the world around her. It wasn’t a particularly pretty sight, but it was something. There were no black curtains, no confined spaces. And she could see her dear, dear friends.
She could see Taako.
Her hands still engulfed in flames, magic still surrounding her, Lup took a breath. A deep, long breath, letting it sink in that she was finally out of her prison. She was finally out.
She was finally free.