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“... wake up. Nyx, wake up. Can you hear me?”
There were two things that Nyx was aware of when he opened his eyes. One, was that his name was Nyx. The other was that his neck and back hurt, as if he had been roughly thrown against the wall he was slumped down against. He opened his mouth to respond but no sound came out. He tried again, still nothing. The voice in his head began to speak again.
“Nyx. Nyx! Are you okay? Can you say something?”
He huffed out in annoyance and looked up, and froze at what he saw. There was a man on top of him, except that wasn’t the right description. There was a man curled around him, his eyes closed and expression twisted up as if in pain. Shakily, he reached a hand up to touch the man’s face. It was cold, shockingly so. He felt something wet drip onto him. Nyx froze with his hand on the man’s face. There was someone calling him, but their voice seemed so distant.
“Nyx. Nyx, don’t worry about that man. Nyx, are you okay. Do you need help?”
He gulped, he didn’t want to look down, but he had to. He closed his eyes and took two deep breaths before he opened them and looked down. If he could have screamed, he would have. There was a sword of some sort speared through the man, its tip sticking out of his chest and dripping blood. Blood that had began to gather on Nyx. He reached a hand out to the sword, the strange sword with what looked like bright green wiring that threaded through the blade.
The white weblike design that covered the entirety of the man’s shirt was stained red around the exit wound, and the cloth there was wet, so wet. His fingers came away red when he felt around it. It all made sense. The coldness of the man’s face, the blood on his shirt, the sword, it all made sense. He felt tears well up in his eyes and he squeezed them shut as he pressed their foreheads together. He didn’t think he had ever seen this man before so, why? Why did he feel so sad?
“... oh, Nyx.” He spent his minutes just sitting there underneath the man, their foreheads pressed together and his fingers tracing ice cold cheekbones and then carding through brown hair cropped short. (A military cut, hadn’t he teased someone about it?) “Nyx, you can’t sit here. You have to go.” No, he wanted to tell the man. No, I want to sit here and grieve this man. He didn’t deserve this, to die alone with no one to grieve him. I will grieve him. It was lucky for the voice in his head that he couldn’t speak now wasn’t it? “Nyx, you’re not safe here. Take the sword and leave.”
He shook his head, his mouth forming soundless words of refusal. He shook his head, mouthing the words ‘no, no, no’ over and over again as the shock of the situation faded and he began to remember what had happened. (It was just supposed to be a peaceful outing, they were so busy and-) “Nyx move!”
He pushed himself from out underneath the dead man, and just in the nick of time. A small pod-like robot appeared at the end of he room and shot a laser where he had been. He watched as the red line pierced the corpse of the man which toppled over.
Battle, Nyx was used to battle. (Then again, so was-) He yanked the sword out of the man and ignored the sick squelch it made. The pod-like robot didn’t have enough time to react before he had swung the sword and split the thing in half. Two more showed up from the side streets and he gritted his teeth as he used the sword to block one laser attack, but a second got him in the side. There wasn’t time to scream or cry or react. It was all a dance from here on out, duck, block, swing, block, run, block again, swing.
“Good,” the voice said again. He noticed how there was a red crystal in the hilt of the sword and it glowed whenever the voice spoke. Nyx blinked, what- “now let’s get out of here before more of those things show up.” There was a pause as Nyx nodded and ducked down a side streets that one of the robots had shown up on. “Right, you know this neighborhood don’t you? Almost as well as I did.” Another pause. “Well, head out of this district and then take the main artery west. That’ll get you out of town.”
Nyx grunted as they came to a street. There was a motorbike with a helmet hanging on one of the handlebars, a very familiar bike. He whistled silently to himself as he got the keys out of his pockets and turned on the bike. A low chuckle echoed in his head. “You always were fond of that bike weren’t you?”
Yep. He definitely was.
…
There were enemies on the roads. Of course there were enemies on the roads. The pods from before and larger pods with four legs that could do burst attacks.
They were forced to take a detour into a commercial district nearby. It was eerie, walking through brightly lit streets and shops and restaurants apparently open for business, but with no one around. It was like everyone had suddenly left, but Nyx had never gotten the memo. He found one of the citizens of the city when he turned the corner. Or, well, he found her body.
“Oh,” the voice in the sword said after a long pause. “It looks like she’s gone, too.” Nyx grunted, he looked at the crumpled body of what appeared to be a teenage girl on the corner of two buildings. She had short dark brown hair and brown eyes that were staring sightlessly into the distance. She was wearing a tartan skirt and a tank that looked almost like one of those sailor suits that middle school students had to wear. “She was a good girl. You didn’t know her, but you would have liked her.”
Strange that the voice was chatty all of a sudden. All the way up there, the voice was silent. He wondered who the voice belonged to, and how they somehow managed to be more quiet than someone who was literally mute. (Someone thoughtful, he thought, someone who used words wisely and knew their weight.) “Hmm?” Another pause. “Oh, she wants to come with us.” He stared at the sword. Come with them? How- “Just place the blade on her body, it should allow her to come with us.” Nyx stared blankly at the sword and did just that. A golden glow shone around the body of the girl, and before he knew it she had disappeared into an explosion of sparks that disappeared into the sword.
He picked up the sword, that somehow seemed warmer and had more heft to it now, and stared at it. He wondered to himself just what had happened. “She came from a line of great warriors,” the voice said. “The Amicitias have always been strong. I think she unlocked something in the sword, why don’t you try it?”
And somehow? Somehow Nyx just knew what the ability was. With one strong overhead strike he was able to crack the ground beneath him. He smirked. The voice was right, the girl really was strong. Of course that was when company showed up, pods, fat pods, and several machines that reminded him of scorpions. (That was if scorpions were enclosed in a white plasticy substance and had a single glowing red eye.)
“Looks like we’ve got company, Nyx. You ready for this?”
As I’ll ever be, he thought to himself as he charged towards the scorpion-like machine first.
…
Nyx was a strong warrior, and more importantly, his years in kingsglaive had given him combat experience. The robots were cleaned up and they were on the road to the main artery before they knew it. Thankfully, the were no more robots on the road, and the main artery was blissfully free of cars. Usually it would be jammed with people heading around town by now.
It felt nice zipping past the city, the wind blowing in his hair. They passed by one of the giant statues around Insomnia, when the voice spoke up again. “Nyx, was that the-” Nyx grit his teeth, busted. “-we’re going the wrong way. Nyx, turn around.”
He ignored the voice and keep going forward, acting as though he hadn’t heard. He mentally hummed a song that he had heard on the radio once. “Nyx, this is an order, turn around.” Make me, he thought as he revved the engine and simply went faster. Faster forward to the heart of Insomnia.
An exasperated sigh echoed in his head. “You never did listen to anyone, did you? Even if it was for your own good-” An annoyed sound. “Fine, but you be careful, okay? No stupid stunts.” A heavy silence followed, almost as if the voice wanted to say something, but couldn’t. Another sigh, softer this time. “Just be careful.”
I will.
…
They made a pitstop in a residential neighborhood. The voice was quiet when he went up familiar steps that lead to a familiar floor and a familiar door to which he had the key. The voice only spoke when the door opened to a plain, but neat room. “Oh, Nyx.”
He turned on the lights.
Nyx still remembered the first day that Cor had given him the key. He had stared at it for a long time before his eyes lit up when he realized what he had been given. Wordlessly, he tossed the key onto the table by the door, toed his boots off, and walked to the bedroom, the sword still by his side.
There were pictures here and there. Cor never did like pictures, but there were still pictures of them around their place. It was what made it theirs after all. He plucked one of Cor’s black jackets from out of the closet and wrapped it around him. It smelled of Cor, faintly. He felt tears prickle at the corner of his eyes and he broke down on the bed, his grasp finally loosening around the sword hilt as it clattered noisily on the floor. “Oh, Nyx. You really cared, didn’t you?”
Nyx didn’t say anything. He spent the next few minutes crying on the bed, and then the next hour with a stupid movie they had always liked to watch on the TV and a bowl of hastily prepared mac and cheese. The sword was laid across his lap as he watched the movie. It hadn’t even ended when Nyx sighed, looked down at the sword and turned the TV off.
(He slipped a photo of him and Cor into his jacket before he left. It was a rare picture of Cor smiling and he was grinning at the camera while tucked in his lover’s arms.)
There was another dead body two blocks down from the apartment. Only, this was a body that he recognized. He sank to the ground in front of Crowe’s body, her eyes thankfully closed, although her expression was just as pained as Cor’s had been.
Grim-faced he placed the sword on her lap. He stared at its gem as if it could read his intentions from his gaze alone. It seemed it could.
“A friend of yours? I’m sorry for your loss.” He waited. “She said she’ll come with us, and told us to, I quote, ‘kick his ass, Nyx’. You have interesting friends.”
He grinned. Yep, that sounded like Crowe. He watched as her body glowed and faded into red orange sparks before being absorbed by the sword.
(She unlocked the ability to cast flames on the edge of the sword. Flames that would be sent careening towards enemies if he swung it fast enough. Good, ole’ Crowe, always dependable and so talented with her magic.)
…
The last body was that of an old man in ceremonial uniform. They found him on the road to the citadel. The sword took a long moment to speak, longer than either for the first body they found, or for Crowe. He frowned.
“Clarus Amicitia,” the voice said finally, tone strangely deferent. “Shield to the king. A strong warrior, and one that would honor us by joining us in our journey.” A pause and then. “Iris will be happy to join her father again.” Nyx gave the sword a curious stare before he placed the sword on the body. Clarus faded into golden sparkles, Nyx noticed with some interest. An experimental swing revealed what ability was unlocked, time slow, or something that felt a lot like time slowing down. Neat.
They found Drautos in the courtyard. Drautos smirked as he held up the sword. “Oh? How surprising to find you here, I thought I had killed you.” Nyx grit his teeth. Yes, he remembered now. How he and Cor had been going out on a rare date, the two of them having been given time off for the meeting. Only for them to be rudely interrupted by masked men and machines, and behind them- “Seems like you’re made of tougher stuff huh?” The man laughed before metal encased his body. “That’s fine, I’ll just fight you like this. Once you’re gone and I have that sword, well, it’s all over isn’t it?”
He roared silently as he charged the man with the sword. The voice giving him one last warning before he fell into the rhythm of combat. “Nyx, please, be careful.”
…
He was floating in a white, featureless plane. He floated there and wondered if this was the end when giggling caught his attention. He stared to his side and saw a giggling teenage girl, the same giggling teenager that they had found on the city streets. His eyes widened. “Oh, goodie, you’re awake now, I was wondering how long it was going to take.”
Before he could say anything (or try to say anything), someone slugged him in the shoulder. “Ow! That hurt!” Well that answered whether he could speak or not.
At his other side, Crowe laughed. “Well, you were taking your sweet time with your beauty sleep, Nyx. I was going to have to wake you up forcibly if you didn’t wake up anytime soon. How you feeling, now, better?”
“Yeah.” A pause. “Is this- is this the afterlife?” There was a sense of wonder in his voice. The two girls exchanged looks.
“Um,” the teenager said.
“Not exactly,” Crowe finished.
“Nyx Ulric.” He shot up at the authoritative voice that sounded and gulped when he saw Clarus Amicitia staring right at him. “Someone is waiting for you. You must go to them.” The teenager skipped to her father’s side and nodded at him.
“Go,” she said and gestured towards the side. “He’s been waiting a while now.” There was a figure in the distance. The figure was standing away from him, but he would recognize the back of that man anywhere. He murmured a name as the scene faded and he found himself on the street, the sword at his side, strangely quiet. In front of him was the figure of Drautos, lifelessly staring at the dawn sky.
…
The sword also functioned as a magic wand, it seemed like. He waved it around and rubble reformed into buildings and machines and corpses disappeared. All told, there hadn’t been a great amount of damage to the city. The Nifs had decided to head straight to the citadel it seemed like, there to steal the crystal. Only, they had missed a piece of it.
He stared down at the sword and traced the red crystal in its hilt. As long as this was in the city, he shoved his thoughts aside and walked stridently forward. One day, maybe even one day soon, people would return to Insomnia and find it whole and unbroken. They would settle back in the city again, and rebuild their government, and everything would go back to normal.
Everything that is, except for the people that had died. The voice had been silent the entire time he been fixing things up. Whether it was in silent support or- “are you finally going to get going now? I think you’ve fixed up the entire place, Nyx. It looks more put together than when I was here anyway.”
He smiled down at the sword. Good, the voice was still here. “You know,” he said apropos of nothing. “I always did find your voice comforting.”
Silence and then- “Nyx. Nyx, you’ve gotten your voice back.”
“I did,” he said with a laugh, his stride slowing down as they came to a familiar quarter. “Only took a near death experience it looked like.”
There was a beat before the voice in the sword recognized where they were. “Nyx, what are we doing back here?”
Nyx couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. Took the guy long enough. “You know, I never stopped to think about just why I found your voice comforting. I just knew that it was, and that I felt better when you were around.” His smile faded a bit as he turned the corner and came across a promenade. He stopped in front of Cor’s corpse, slumped in front of the wall at the edge of the promenade. “But that was because it was you, wasn’t it? You were always right besides me, Cor.”
A sigh. “So, you figured it out hmm? So what are we doing here then? You going to burn my corpse or something?”
“Not quite.” He held up the sword. “You know, I’ve been using it to fix buildings and get rid of corpses and machines and stuff, but, do you think it could bring someone back? It must suck being stuck in a crystal like that.” The voice, Cor’s voice, didn’t say anything as he gently pried the crystal out of the sword’s hilt. The glowing wire-like lines faded when he removed the crystal. “I don’t want to live in a world where you’re not here,” he whispered to it’s cool surface before he placed the crystal on Cor’s wound.
A second passed, two, and then the crystal began to glow and burn. He yelped as he dropped the crystal and that’s when it happened. The glow seeped into Cor’s body and began to heal the wound. He watched as the edges of it grew smaller by the second before the crystal fell off of Cor with a hiss. Nyx dropped to his knees and reached for his lover’s face. “Cor?”
He yelped when Cor suddenly yanked him into his grasp. “You’re an idiot you know,” the man whispered into his ear, voice finally back into his body. “You should have left back when you were on the road.”
“And leave you behind? What kind of hero would I be if I did that?” He grinned at Cor and the two drew in slowly towards one another to share a kiss as the sun rose slowly in the sky behind them.