Work Text:
Barry’s not getting his hopes up for surviving Wave Echo Cave.
He’d like to tell himself he came along because of the coin, because of that dire warning — that the vault was a last line of defense against imminent death, that no one could be allowed to use the item inside, and only he could be entrusted with hiding it somewhere else — but Barry’s not sure how much he buys into all that, honestly. Never been sure, but especially not now, feeling way too beat to shit to be some kind of chosen one.
Really, he just came to Wave Echo Cave because Lup had asked him to, and he’d agreed before he even processed what she was talking about. Ever since he awoke in the bandit’s hideout to Lup holding his head in her hand, pouring a sweet healing potion between his lips, he’s… had a hard time thinking coherently. And when he can, it’s usually limited to Lup is so pretty and kind and hot and smart and perfect and I would travel to the ends of the earth for her. Albeit not always in that order.
For all he knows, it could’ve been a love potion that she’d given him, and he could be charmed as hell right now — but more likely, he’s just still concussed. After all, his head hurts something fierce, and he gets dizzier the more he tries to think about why —
Yeah, he’s really gonna die in Wave Echo Cave.
Magnus leads the way inside, Merle and Barry wedged in after him with the twins bringing up the rear — and already, Barry doesn’t love the way Magnus swings his light-spelled shield around to illuminate the path, making the shadows on the walls flicker and dance like they’re about to strike.
“Just what we need, Mags. Make this place feel even more haunted,” he mutters, and can practically hear Lup’s interest pique.
“Haunted?” she echoes, and Barry almost trips, trying to think of what to say without admitting he’s just afraid of the dark.
“I — I dunno. It just feels like a — a good place to get murdered in. For — for the spirits or whatever doing the murdering, I mean. Not a good place for us.”
Lup’s hand lands on his shoulder, and he’s very glad she can’t see him blushing right now.
“Hey, don’t sweat it. I’m great at talking to ghosts —”
Somewhere in the back of the party, Taako lets out a long-suffering groan. “Fuck. Not this —”
“Y-you are?” Barry asks, ignoring him, and Lup nods.
“Mm-hm! Now, that guy back there —” She jabs her thumb over her shoulder, pointing at Taako. “— doesn’t believe me whenever I tell this story, but you will, right?”
“Of course,” Barry blurts out, before his brain even catches up to what she’s asking of him. Gods, he’s really gotta work on that.
“Thank you!” She quickens her pace, letting go of his shoulder and falling into place between him and Magnus, but walking backwards to still face him — then conjures a small ball of flame in her hand, bathing her face in flickering orange light as she lowers her voice. “It was almost seven years ago to the day, and not as far from this place as you might want to believe —”
“Like twenty miles north!” Taako calls out. “Allegedly!”
“It was like twenty miles north of this very spot, thank you Taako,” Lup goes on, “where I found myself at the edge of uncharted wilderness! You see, there was this Neverwinter restaurant that caught wind of Sizzle It Up, and, being the plagiarists they were, started their own cooking show — so I snuck out in the dead of night one eve, just to find them and vandalize all their shit —”
She lowers her voice. “But crouching outside their stagecoach, I overheard them talking about something bigger than any show. They’d heard of this magical ingredient of legend, they called it Akadi’s Ambrosia, that they could use to bake transcendent, life-extending dishes — and they thought they’d finally discovered where to find it! And it was right next door in the Felicity Wilds, just a quick ride away…”
Barry blinks, not sure why the name of that place rings a bell for him. He has a gut feeling it’s not for a pleasant reason. “It… it wasn’t so easy for them, though?”
“Oh, babe, you know it wasn’t. I snuck after them, obviously, to see if they’d find it and what Taako and I would have to compete with — but folks, it was rough going! It was still all snowy out that year, and those assholes’ hired help slashed through most of the monsters at first — but then a freaking wyvern flew over us, and I had to haul ass out of there before it spotted me —” She smiles, flames dancing across her face and in her eyes. “But that’s where it got spooky.”
“Here we go,” Taako sighs, but Merle and Magnus are listening with rapt attention, and obviously, Barry is too. It’s never even a question, with Lup.
“I’d lost track of the competition by then. And slightly losing track of where I was, too — but while I was hunched over behind a tree, just trying to catch my breath in the dry winter air, I glanced up, and he was there.”
She pauses, presumably for dramatic effect. “And by he, I do mean the hottest ghost I’ve seen in my life.”
“Ah.” Barry’s stomach churns, and for a moment, he can’t tell why — but it’s got to be jealousy, right? He’s jealous of the fucking ghost his crush met years ago. What a week he’s having.
“How did I know he was a ghost, you ask? Well, he just had an empty void for a face, under the hood of this glowing crimson robe —”
It’s hardly fair to Lup, to be jealous. He’s only known her for a day, and never harbored delusions that she wasn’t out of his league — but the butterflies in his stomach won’t go away, and leap fully into his throat as Lup goes on.
“And he spoke to me, in this deafening raspy whisper, like ‘It’s too dangerous to go any further, mortal.’ But, like, I was less scared now? Because there wasn’t any wind, but he was making his robe billow all dramatically, and these big glowing eyes were shining where his face would’ve been, and the voice was so over-the-top that, like —” Lup throws up her hands. “How was I not gonna fall in love with him, after that much commitment to the dark, dork aesthetic?”
“No, that’s valid!” Magnus assures her, and Merle waves a hand.
“Well, yeah, I guess I’m into way weirder shit.”
“Please never tell me about it, Merle!” Lup says brightly, bringing the ball of flame back below her chin before she goes on. “So he was looking at me all expectantly, waiting for me to turn tail and run, but I was realizing he was kinda my ideal man, so before I could lose my nerve I was like ‘Yeah, you’re so right, thanks! It would be so dangerous to go alone, so why don’t you come with me?’ And folks? That was the day ya girl here learned that ghosts could blush!”
Well, who wouldn’t? thinks Barry, blushing for his own part. Lup’s words ring as so… familiar. Why does this suddenly sound familiar?
“He stammered for a little while after that, but eventually, he got out something like ‘All roads in these wilds exist to funnel mortals to their deaths,’” Lup continues, “so I was like, ‘They funneled me to you, so they can’t be all bad! Do you wanna be my specter of death for Fantasy Valentine’s Day? ‘Cause I dunno if you can eat, babe, but if you can, then I can cook you any romantic meal mortal hands have ever made,’ and then, he blushed harder. And he said —”
“Someday soon, Lup,” Barry whispers under his breath, and doesn’t even have time to question why before Lup says:
“He told me ‘Someday soon, Lup.’ And he held out a hand, but as soon as I took it — there was a flash, and I was back in the Sizzle It Up coach, but he was just gone.”
Huh. That’s… weird. A weirdly lucky guess, giving Barry a migraine just trying to compute the odds.
“He knew your name?” Magnus gasps, and Lup nods.
“Yeah! Crazy, huh? Obviously I’ve been waiting for him ever since, and I haven’t heard back yet, but —” Her smile wavers, for only a moment.“I’m an elf and he’s probably immortal, right? So his sense of soon is probably a little skewed, and I get that —”
“I’ll let you know if I see him around!” Magnus promises, which gets a laugh out of her.
“Oh, hell yeah! Thanks, dude —”
“Now, hold on just a second, what happened to your rivals? From the other show?” asks Merle. “I feel like you kinda glossed over —”
“Oh, them? Never heard from again.” Lup grins. “Hot ghost won’t save just anyone’s life.”
Magnus chuckles along before a thought seems to dawn on him, and his brow furrows. “Wait, do you think he’d save me?”
“Yeah! How about saving this old man?” Merle chimes in, and Lup waves them off.
“I dunno, man. Like, I’m pretty one-of-a-kind —” she says, and Taako groans. “— but I could ask, next time I see him! Just don’t go jumping into danger ‘til I check, mm-kay?”
She twirls around, her hand landing on Barry’s shoulder again, and she gives him a good-natured squeeze. “And try to look alive in the meantime, gang! Nobody’s dying in this cave today!”
“Oh. Y-yeah, course not. Who said anything about dying? I would never,” Barry stammers — and when Lup bursts out laughing, he tries to focus only on her, tries to push the deja vu and the headache out of his mind.
Luckily, her laughter is captivating, so it’s not especially hard.
*
The coin was right. The Rockseeker vault holds only imminent death.
Barry’s so distracted, trying to hold Magnus back from high-fiving the damn glove, that he misses Gundren slipping it on, immediately turning on them all. There’s fire everywhere, and blinding lights glancing off the black glass floor, as the heat drives their helpless little party into a panicked huddle at the back of the room —
Gundren sneers and whirls away, lunging for the exit, but one last fireball erupts from his armored palm — and Barry sees it growing, charts its course with a certainty he shouldn’t have, frame-by-frame, three, two, one —
He pushes to the front of the huddle, and for want of a better shield, extends his arms and leaps forward to meet it.
Lup’s screams are the last thing he hears —
*
“Barry?!”
This isn’t happening. This is — this is a nightmare. An illusion.
“BARRY!”
She’d been jumping forward to intercept too, which — which wasn’t as stupid as what he’d just done, because she could’ve — could’ve woven the blast, could’ve been an even match for the flames, could’ve done something! But he’d beaten her to it, and just — just taken it. Taken it for her — no, for all of them, but after she’d asked him to come here, and —
She screams his name again — and his body twitches.
There’s no way.
It’s wishful thinking. It’s all in her head. The grief’s getting to her —
But his form contorts, unmistakably, like he’s silently coughing something out — and that something takes the shape of a blood-red glow, which… brightens, and weaves, threading around itself until it takes on an identifiable shape —
And it’s the shape of a very, very familiar robe.
“…Hey, Lup,” the ghost says, in Barry’s sweet, apologetic voice, and bows his head sheepishly. “Uh… surprise?”