Chapter Text
The cries of a child were drowned under the painful moans of the collapsing buildings. The fires crackled heatedly, as though chiding them for their weakness and whether the screams that echoed were from the living or dying well, they were all the same to him.
Bright white eyes were blinded with tears and smoke and the ranging sounds of destruction left his little ears ringing. The sheer scale of devastation around him was like a physical weight that threatened to crush his small huddled body.
Then a pair of arms, warm and familiar despite the grime and odd wetness (he would grow up to learn that wetness stemmed from blood). He buried his face against the body and finally felt safe.
That safety was tragically brief.
Gone were the arms. Instead, he was surrounded by hard walls just slightly bigger than his own body. He opened his mouth and wailed in despair but they were muffled by the luminescent barrier that formed between them.
The owner of the arms placed his palm against the barriers and his tiny hand flailed about, desperate to hold it once more, to feel secure and safe. But all he felt was the smoothness of glass.
The palm retracted itself and he screamed, banging against the glass, tossing and turning his body in the limited space he was allowed.
‘Come back.’ His cries pleaded. ‘Come back!’
Something soft and heavy was laid over his vessel, blocking his view entirely. Even the light glow embedded in the interior of the pod to keep his body warm and healthy did little to dispel the darkness.
He begged for anything but this. He didn’t want darkness, he didn’t want loneliness, he didn’t want this terrible terrible fear that won’t stop gnawing at his soul. He wanted safety, he wanted warmth, he wanted loved- he wanted someone.
He cried and cried until his body couldn’t and the gentle glow of the lights lulled his tired body to a fitful sleep.
Outside, the buildings were laid to rest and the dying shuddered their last breaths. The fires crackled in triumph.