Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She couldn’t sleep that night. It didn’t make sense, usually she was out like a light but now it was late. Everyone else was asleep. She had her eyes closed for a long time with steady breathing, one would probably mistake her as one that was in a deep slumber.
Alas there were no dreams appearing behind her eyelids and thus she decided that it would be better to take a walk instead of continuing this.
As she lifted her body up, pulling away from the nice warm bed, her silver hair swayed lightly around her before gently resting on her back. Moonlight spilled in through the illuminating everything just enough to navigate the room. She slid off the side of her bed and walked towards the door.
The hallway was rather long, illuminated dimly by blue faintly glowing crystals along the walls. After a while of navigating the dark mansion she found her way out into the night.
She walked through the yard out into a forest. The air was crisp and cold, the sky was free of any clouds leaving every star visible. The trees towered around her peacefully, as if nothing was wrong in this world. She gazed around with wonder at the calm scenery.
“I wonder how everyone else is doing tonight,” her voice chimed quietly into the night.
She felt that most of the time everyone slept peacefully, it seemed for a while now that everything was okay. Nothing crazy was happening with the Witch’s Cult or assassins or Mabeasts and it was all thanks to Subaru.
Subaru. He saved her so many times, he was now her knight, yet it felt she didn’t know all that much about him. How did he always do it, before she would even know there is a problem he would fix it. He always knew. Whenever there was a disaster he would always know, gather everyone, stop too much damage from happening. She was thankful for it but how did he always know?
She contemplated what she did and did not know about her knight deciding that she needed to find a way to find out more about him.
When she snapped out of her thoughts she had found she had gone quite a long way into the forest and the moon had followed her example across the sky.
“Oh, it's reeeeally late, I should probably go back,” she whispered to herself as she turned back around heading back to the mansion.
Throughout the walk she thought back again on all the adventures they had and just how many friends she had now. She smiled remembering how Subaru said he loved her, she frowned remembering how he always got hurt.
She knew he sometimes had nightmares and really hoped that he could sleep peacefully tonight.
Before she even realized it she was at the edge of the forest, she stretched her arms yawning. She was going to go back to the mansion and get some sleep that she was finally tired enough to get.
Suddenly she saw someone dashing from the mansion straight towards the forest. She squinted her eyes to see who it was and …
“Beatrice?”
Was she crying? Why? Did something happen? Is everything okay? Emilia decided to follow her. They ran. Ran, deep into the forest. Finally stopping when Beatrice fell against a tree exhausted, crying. Emilia caught up to her with a concerned look.
“Beatrice, what's wrong?”

Chapter Text

Beatrice had slept well that night. She had finally gotten used to sleeping in a room with someone else. Ever since the previous mansion burned down and Subaru had taken her hand things had been like this.

Peaceful, with many happy people around. Fun moments, with many friends. Although she would never admit how much she enjoyed it. That would be embarrassing she supposed!

Since then she didn’t have many worries on her mind. The only thing she really worried about was keeping Roswaal in check. Recently though there had been another thing plaguing her mind.

Nightmares, her contractor had them often. She would often wake up to him thrashing and crying in his sleep. All those nights she would wake him up and comfort him. Sometimes he would cry himself to sleep, sometimes he would hurt himself …

She didn’t like it, she has no idea what happened to him. Actually, sometimes she feels there are too many mysteries surrounding him. She has asked him before about everything, maybe she could help. He would always find ways to dodge the questions, to talk her out of worrying. She even told Emilia (though she left out more gruesome details), not even that worked to figure this out.

She knew he didn’t want her to worry about him, he never wants anyone to worry. Even so, there is simply no way she can ignore her contractor being in so much pain. He saved her and she wants to help him as well. She supposed that was why …

She rested well but was suddenly woken up when she heard it yet again. Whimpering, pained groans, restless movement. Yet again Subaru was trapped in a nightmare with pain written all over his features.

She moved her hand towards him to yet again comfort him. She froze, not knowing why. Her contractor was suffering, shouldn’t she help him as soon as possible. That was when her heart finally caught up with her mind. This idea felt rather selfish but if he wouldn’t tell her what was going on …

“Sorry, you’ll have to bear through this a little longer, I suppose,” she whispered gently.

She surrounded her hand with mana, preparing a spell. She gently placed that hand to the middle of his forehead and lost consciousness.

*****

He was in the middle of Arlam village. This usually cheerful, fun village was quiet, too quiet. He soon realized what was going on. The pile in front of him was a pile of the charred corpses of many villages. All around, corpses of villagers, covered in blood. Stabbed. Sliced. Burned. Crushed. Mutilated in more ways than anyone could think of.

His vision blurred, he was terrified.

He was in a cave, shackled, with many witch cultists around. Rem was fighting them. She went for an aerial attack and she couldn’t touch the ground again. Her body was trapped, twisted, dangled, mutilated by an invisible force as a madman laughed.

Yet again his vision blurred.

The assassins were attacking the mansion, they had to escape. He finds Petra … She’s dead. Her skull fractured with a crooked blade.

Again

His vision …

Blood. Pain. Agony. Death.
Fear

In Sanctuary.

It was quiet.

Everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow. Snow was still falling from the heavens. He walked around this snowy wasteland.

There he encountered, a white rabbit …

*****

Beatrice shot up from the floor horrified. She felt like she was going to puke. She shivered with her face twisted in terror. She kneeled there, staring wide at the floor with hands covering her mouth.

Why? How did this happen? None of that ever happened. Why did it feel so real? What happened to Subaru? There was one more question, she realized.

Why was she kicked out when that rabbit appeared? Her spell wasn’t supposed to end that abruptly. She slowly lifted her head to look at her contractor, something wasn’t right. Even though she was terrified she needed to find out what.

When her eyes finally lifted enough to see her contractor she gasped. He was surrounded by shadows that almost seemed to be guarding him. They swirled seeming to form a barrier between her and Subaru.

This shadow must have something to do with the terrible things that happened to Subaru! Still shaking she glared intently at it.

“W-What are you and what are y-you doing to my contractor?” She interrogated in a shaky attempt at a menacing tone.

The shadow towered, reaching out for her while she held her ground. She stood firm but was nonetheless intimidated by the being of shadow. It seemed threatening and had something to do with Subaru’s pain.

“A-Answer me, I suppose!” Her questions were no use.

No matter what she said it would not answer her. She dodged as it came towards her, not wanting to know what it would do to her. It seemed hostile, chasing her around the room. She had enough of this.

“Minya,” she breathed out.

Purple crystals formed around her and she carefully aimed them to destroy only the shadow. She fired them off and they hit true, harming nothing else in the room. The shadow dissipated and she rushed over to her contractor, concerned.

She was relieved when she saw the gentle rising and falling of his chest, his eyes closed in sleep. Suddenly his eyes opened just a little bit.

“Beako?” he said tiredly.

“Go back to sleep, I suppose. You need rest, in fact,” she made sure to keep her tone stern and not show how shaken she was.

Exhaustion won and he gently closed his eyes again. As soon as he was fully asleep she walked out of the room. Then, her head spinning, she ran. Dashing through the mansion she eventually got outside.

Her breathing was uneven and tears dripped down her cheeks. Terrified, horrified, she needed to get away. She would ask about it all in the morning but for now she needed to run. She was so caught up in her emotions she didn’t notice a certain worried half-elf tailing her.

Eventually her body gave out as she collapsed against a tree, sliding down and curling up. She held her knees against her chest and cried gently. She was startled suddenly when she heard a familiar, concerned voice chime into the night.

“What’s wrong, Beatrice.”

It felt like the whole world had collapsed.

Chapter Text

Why?

That was the question and every possible answer seemed wrong.

She tried to come up with every reason, with every excuse.

There was nothing.

“Beatrice?”

Again that voice questioned her with concern but she couldn’t answer. Her thoughts had caught her into a web. This fear, this anger, this sadness, did he feel that?

Why?

A hand gently landed on her shoulder as a beautiful half-elf sat facing her. Amethyst eyes gazed into her own eyes as if searching for a reason. Was she asking why as well? Did she want answers too?

Why?

“Beatrice, what happened?”

Oh, she was asking her. How could she give an answer? She wasn’t sure what happened. Was she concerned about her? This isn’t the time for that, they should all be worrying about Subaru.

“Is something wrong with Subaru?”

Yes that was it, finally the correct question. She felt she could voice her thoughts now.

“Very wrong, in fact” she mumbled. If there was much other noise then no one would be able to hear it. Still the half-elf picked up those words.

“Very wrong, with Subaru? Is Subaru okay?”

“Subaru is …”

The half-elf leaned in closer, her face was scrunched up in concern.

“We need to talk with Subaru in the morning, I suppose.”

“Why? Did something happen?”

The half-elf continued to try to get information out of the little spirit girl. She didn’t know what happened but worry for both Subaru and Beatrice showed in her eyes.

“Betty told you about the nightmares, I suppose. We couldn’t get any information on what was happening to him. I was worried, in fact,” she started spilling everything uncontrollably. “I was so worried, I needed to find out what was wrong. I cast a spell to see what was happening in the nightmare,” tears spilled down her cheeks yet again. “I saw everyone die. It was too vivid, I suppose. Too real, in fact. I can’t tell if it really is just a bad dream.”

She choked and sobbed at what she saw. He sees this every night, doesn’t he. She cried. She cried so hard for her contractor. For her savior. For the one who asked her to choose him. For the one who had been going through so much pain silently. She cried.

Why, was the only question that ran through her head. Everything felt so wrong, he shouldn’t be in such pain alone. Isn’t that painful loneliness exactly what he saved her from? He saved her so why is he so alone.

“He should be saved too!” She yelled what all her thoughts led to. With all the anger, sadness, fear she felt. Everything leaked into her voice.

Suddenly, warm arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. Wrapped in the half-elf’s embrace gentle words were whispered to her.

“If he’s ever in trouble, then we’ll save him too. We’ll help him with any pain he’s going through, I know we can. I promise.”

All the spirit could do was cry into the half-elf’s neck. All the emotions from what she had seen. All the worry for her contractor slowly melted away. Revealing only a determination to save him, no matter what.

She eventually fell asleep due to exhaustion but it was fine for now. In the morning they would talk truthfully about everything.

*****

It had been a while now with Emilia holding Beatrice in her arms and she realized that the spirit was asleep.

“Geeze, it’s late. I guess I’ll carry Beatrice back to the mansion, I don’t want to wake her up.”

Emilia whispered this as she stood up. She was still rather confused. Nightmares? Death? Real? All she could tell was that Subaru was in some kind of trouble. She wished that the dunderhead would stop trying to handle everything alone. Always solving everything, always dealing with everything. She wanted to help too!

She pouted at the thought of him doing everything alone again.

Alone …

Otto! She realized, in Sanctuary Otto helped him. Perhaps Otto can help them help Subaru!

Lost in thought she walked into the mansion. She headed to Subaru’s room to put Beatrice back where she belonged at this hour. In a proper bed, getting proper rest. After all if someone neglects sleep they wont grow taller! At least that's what Subaru and Puck told her.

Wait! She should be asleep too! That's all right, she’ll make an exception for tonight. Something much more important is going on after all.

She planned, in the morning when Subaru was awake she would drag him to Otto’s office. Otto wouldn’t like an interruption to his work but she is sure he can make an exception for this. She, Beatrice, and Otto will then question him.

She was determined to help him. What could go wrong?