Chapter Text
The first time Taako died, Lup died too. An explosion took both of them at the same time, instantly, without any suffering, and together. And as morbid as it was—Barry was almost thankful for that. Taako had been a mess the first time Lup died, so Barry was grateful that Lup could put off that pain a little bit longer.
The second time Taako died, he and Lup were both killed by the Hunger in the last moments of a cycle.
But the third time Taako died was a different story.
They were in a particularly dangerous plane inhabited by a civilization of people similar to the drow they had back home, though they were much, much taller than the drow the IPRE was familiar with—and they freely walked the surface of this planet, not needing to reside in the darkness underground. And while some of the drow here were amicable, most were distrustful. And some were...aggressive.
Merle and Magnus had both been killed a few months before while attempting to communicate with the drow. They were completely destroyed. Barry and Taako had found their bodies, and Barry could not get the image out of his head. Taako was beyond reluctant to speak to any of the drow after that, even if they had been friendly to him before.
He had only been coaxed along today because everyone else was going. The plan wasn’t to seek out or talk to any of the drow, but they did still want to study the plane and its inhabitants—plus, they figured out that the Light was most likely in this area.
Of course, things rarely ever go as planned—and they were now in a heated battle with three drow who seemed to be immensely powerful arcanists.
Spells were being thrown left and right from both sides, but it quickly became clear that these drow were capable of incredibly high level magic that the IPRE had never even heard of—neither back home nor on their thirty-odd year journey.
One spell brought things to a screeching halt for the twins.
One of the drow shot out a massive electrified black magical charge—without a wand—which Taako had no time to react against. It hit him square in the chest, and he was dead before he hit the ground.
“T-Taako?!” Lup yelped.
He collapsed to his knees and then fell to his side without a word.
“No,” Lup pled breathlessly. “No, no, no, no...”
She ran over to him, only narrowly avoiding a hit from a spell that flew by as she passed.
“Focus, Lup!” Davenport commanded. “You don’t want to—oh. Oh, no.”
The captain shut himself up when he saw Lup approaching Taako. As soon as Davenport saw Taako’s motionless body, he knew. And Lup knew, too.
But she would not accept it.
“Taako?” She asked softly, her voice cracking. “Please. Please. Not like this.”
She turned him over on his back and hovered her fingers over the gruesome wound in his chest, hesitant to touch. Instead she moved her hand to the side of his neck, as if she were moving through tar. She pressed her fingers against his pulse point for a few moments before all the color drained from her face.
“No,” she whimpered. “No.”
The battle raged on around her as she clung desperately to her brother’s IPRE jacket, horrified.
Barry began to tremble as he realized what had just happened, but he couldn’t unpack that right now—he had to keep fighting so they wouldn’t lose anyone else.
And that was evidently a definite possibility now, he thought as another curse just narrowly missed Lup, who was too focused on her brother to notice.
He was about to spring into action when Lucretia beat him to it. She leapt in front of Lup and threw up a shield, competent as always in spite of her apparent panic.
“Lup,” Lucretia addressed. “I’m sorry—I know—but—”
She did not finish her sentence as a powerful blast dissolved her shield and an arrow shot into her shoulder.
Lucretia dropped to one knee with a shout, grasping at the arrow.
Barry grit his teeth and pivoted, firing off Blight at one of the drow and completely decimating it—but he barely had time to register his victory, as when he turned back to help Lucretia he was suddenly knocked back with an incredible force and thrown against the cobblestone of a nearby building—and for a moment everything went blank.
“...arry? Get up, Barry, come on!”
Davenport was tugging fruitlessly at his arm, his eyes wide in terror.
“Shit...” Barry cursed, reaching for the back of his head as his vision cleared. “Fuck, are the drow dead?”
“No, I—I’m making a call,” Davenport said. “I’ve got em caught in an illusion. We’re gonna run. Now, right now. Can you walk?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” Barry said as he brought himself to his feet. His head throbbed, and his vision spun slightly as he rose.
“We just can’t risk losing anyone else,” Davenport explained in a panic. “Quickly—the illusion’s not going to last long—girls, we gotta go.”
The captain had turned back towards Lucretia, now back on her feet, and Lup—who was doubled over in anguish by Taako’s body.
Barry tensed and forced himself to move forward, following Capn’port in a daze.
As he surveyed the scene he began to realize that one of his best friends had just been massacred in front of him. It was something that never really got easier—tears welled up in his eyes as the weight of that grief grew more apparent.
He couldn’t let himself fall apart here—not yet, their enemy was slumped on the ground with clouded eyes fixated intently into empty space, and Barry knew the gnomish illusion would be short lived. Given how powerful these drow were, it must have been sheer dumb luck that the illusion worked at all. Plus, there was still Lup.
Barry, Davenport, and Lucretia had all seen Taako die once before.
But Lup had not. And as close as they all were, it would be ludicrous to pretend that Lup and Taako’s bond was not different.
“I—I can’t leave him,” Lup stammered.
“I’m so sorry Lup,” Davenport breathed. “I know how hard this is. I wish I could give you some more time but it’s not safe here, we have to go.”
Lucretia nervously looked back and forth between Lup and the stunned drow. She shook her head, then wove her good arm under one of Lup’s and tried to hoist her up and away from Taako.
“No!”
“Lup, I’m sorry but we can’t win,” Lucretia said as Lup fought against her.
“No, no! That’s—my—brother!”
“He’s gone, Lup,” Davenport said flatly. They did not have time for this. “There’s nothing you can do for him, we have to go! You’ll see him next cycle.”
Barry saw one of the drow twitch out of the corner of his eye. He felt awful, but they didn’t have much choice here. He joined Lucretia and pulled Lup away.
“No—please—”
Lup let out a short yelp of pain and suddenly was leaning heavily into Barry. He braced for her, then quickly scanned for any major wounds.
There was a huge gash on her left side—had she caught a sword there? Or did something arcane slice her? Barry cursed and rearranged so that Lup’s arm was free, which she immediately brought up to the injury. She took a few ragged breaths and steadied herself against Barry, then acquiesced and allowed him and Lucretia to guide her away.
Once the other three were far enough away, Davenport cast Mold Earth and buried the body, fearing for what the drow might be able to do with it.
He ran to catch up, pulling a potion out of his pack.
“Lup,” he addressed. “That’s bad. Take this.”
“No,” she grumbled, dazed. “We’ll need it later.”
“You need it now,” Davenport insisted. Barry noticed there was something off about their captain that he couldn’t quite place—distraction? Perhaps Taako’s death really upset him. “I’m not playing this game. Take the potion.”
Lup begrudgingly drank it down, pausing while its effects worked their way through her wounds. The gash in her side shrunk, and while her condition was still less than ideal—the bleeding stopped, and she was no longer leaning on Barry for support as she walked.
They hurried as quickly as they could, given their conditions, back to the Starblaster as Davenport and Lucretia both cast wards behind them to throw off their enemy in case they’d been followed.