Chapter Text
Silence was comforting to Rae, although it was a lonely air to her presence.
She remembered she would lean onto Tea, blabbering about some daily problems as she listened, one ear to her, another to nature, and eyes all focused on the screen of her laptop as they laughed over memes.
Those days are gone though, but they’ve somewhat returned to her now.
Rae was sitting next to her dear partner, watching as their goopy complexion melted even more the more she stared.
“Rae…just,” Simon peeked at her through the gaps between their half melted fingers “-are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes.” For once, Rae didn’t think twice, she never did, anyways.
A sigh.
“Fine. I’ll make sure it goes to plan then.” Simon’s eyes seemingly glowed a brighter sheen of yellow, and he furrows his brows, a disappointed glassy look in his eyes. “But do you really have to?”
“Well, if I had to die by corruption, I want to die with a bang.” Rae chuckles “Ah, I’m sounding more like Kyomura back then.” She continues. “Plus, it’s been a while, it’s time to see her again, or I’ll not be able to do what I wanted to do the most my entire lifetime of looping in this hell of a story.” Rae flicks her hand “I trust you already found out how to break the loops with what Euterpe left behind, yeah?”
“Sure!” The goopy man seems to phase back to their old bubbly self, only to drop it a second later as he sighs. “But I’m still upset you’d come up with this plan.”
“I know.” Rae mumbled, looking away in a burning shame. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright.” shrugs Simon, lazily leaning back onto the back of the chair “I’m just not the type who would accept self sacrifice easily, but I’ll respect your decision.”
Silence hung in the room.
Rae coughs "Archivist, I want to ask you a final favor."
Simon quirks an eyebrow. "Shoot, Executioner."
"Take care of Tristan...Bory and Suni while I'm gone, alright? Tristan in particular doesn't do well with goodbyes, especially with-"
Simon let out a long, gratey sigh. "Alright. I gotchu, Rae." Simon cuts Rae off before she could finish, eyes averted. "Though, Rae, I'm curious."
Now it’s Rae’s turn to be curious. "Hm?"
"Have you…" Simon pauses "Have you ever felt any remorse for what you've done to Sune and Kyomura?" he quickly corrects himself after Rae's eyes darkened "Well, no offence, I was just curious after I learnt about it through the Archives."
"It's alright." the woman huffed "It is a perfect time to ask anyways."
Rae took a deep breath.
"To be honest, yeah, I do. But at the same time, she was a liar, a fucking manipulator to Euterpe, she decieved us all and he succeeded, and I was angry, angry that she would do this to us, to the people I love."
She looks away, deciding to focus elsewhere other than how saddened Simon looked. "Why, why would a person that I knew was so pure and loveable, helped kill my friend, and hurt my best friend?"
Rae let out a half-hearted laugh "I was so disappointed, felt so betrayed by what Wishy suggested to do to Sune, and let him take over. I killed them, Kyomura, Sune, and…” Her voice cracks. "...my sister.”
"Eventually after the whole ordeal, I repressed it, I was ashamed, ashamed that I just fucking hurt someone I loved and cared for and I just, did nothing, took over the Ctirusverse, destroyed everything under my wrath until Cycles did something." Rae leans back in her chair "I didn't return before Lexi was in charge and I finally got my ass up to take a look at the outside world, and you know what, I return to the same thing I tried to break out cycles ago, and that’s when I knew what little significance I gave to my little rampage wasn’t even worth it.”
"I was supposed to protect Tea and the Citrus Systema, and yet, I've completely failed, I've failed every single fucking purpose I was supposed to serve and every single person in my pathetic life, in the process hurting everyone who has ever loved me at all.” Rae smiles at herself, grin dipped in bitter acceptance.”I was most likely the true cause of why everything like this happened at all."
“No.”
Rae raised her head. “Pardon?”
“You have not failed everyone.” Simon grins, his eyes glazed with an abnormal wetness. “Not me, at least. We’re so close to getting out of here with everyone…”
“You…flatter me.” Rae mumbles. “Yet, this doesn’t change how Sune and Laverne will come for us if I don’t get to them first.”
“There’s got to be another way though…” The disappointed look on Simon’s face rips her fragile heart into millions of shards, and for a moment, she hoped that Simon was right.
The truth is so cruel.
“Not this time.” Rae looks up to meet his eyes, the amber yellow reminding her of a certain magician. “I have a score to settle, and so do they.”
"Fucking hell man, Rae, you…" Simon grunted, tears in their eyes.
"Come here." Rae outstretches her arms, prompting the other to immediately dive into her embrace.
His face squished into the crook of her neck, and she finds herself combing fingers through the loose parts of his finely formed coffee-brown hair.
"I'll miss you a lot." Simon murmurs, his voice a gentle vibrato against her ear.
"Si, I'm only vanishing for a few days." Rae rolls her eyes.
"Still." Rae swore she was holding a cat and not some horrifying eldritch monster. She huffs in amusement, imagining the absolute height of a man as a small pudgy cat.
Rae sighs and pats him. "Alright, fine, you sappy fuck. You're becoming more like Tristan."
"Taking that as an insult." What did she expect? She groans lightheartedly.
Rae spoke, an edge of amusement to her voice. “When are you two ever going to get along?”
“Not until the end of time.” Simon lets go, seemingly looking over her one last time from how his eyes scanned her from top to bottom. He sighs and thankfully looks away before Rae started shuffling from the awkwardness, “You should get going, then.”
"Alright then," Rae walks towards the door, giving Simon a final look. "See you on the flipside, Archivist."
From this distance from each other, Rae couldn’t see as much of a detail on him, but she swore he shrunk , and distance did not stop her from noticing his painfully forced grin.
"Well then, see you on the flipside, Executioner." Simon smiles, and Rae has to tear herself away from her best friend, and with one more glance back at her partner to drink it all in, a neverending need to satisfy, and one that she needs to end quickly if she ever was going to get the show on the road.
So Rae throws herself through the gates to hell, and lets the light consume her.
"Go find what you seek."
"We’ll always be waiting here for you.”